Financial, Tech Shares Drive Rally; Dow Snaps Losing Streak

FOX Business: The Power to Prosper

Soaring financial and technology shares sparked a broad rally that lifted the blue chips out of a three day slump.

Today's Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 109 points, or 0.91%, to 12,044, the S&P 500 jumped 11.6 points, or 0.92%, to 1,280 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 35.4 points, or 1.3%, to 2,688. The FOX 50 traded higher by 10.6 points to 898.

Banks like Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) were some of the top performers following a decision over the weekend by regulators to increase capital requirements by a smaller-than-expected margin.  Higher capital requirements on financial institutions are seen by regulators to provide a bigger cushion during financial turmoil, but also weigh on profitability.

Technology issues, such as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), also posted solid gains.

The volatile situation in Greece, which has taken the spotlight in recent weeks, continues to remain in focus this week.  The country has a nearly half a trillion dollar public debt burden and will need a $17 billion bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund to pay the next tranche of debt that comes due next month.  However, in exchange, the European authorities have pushed Greece to take deep austerity measures, which have been highly-contentious among the public, igniting broad protests.

Without the emergency aid package, the embattled country will nearly certainly need to restructure, or worse, default on, its debt, according to analysts.  A debt event could send shockwaves throughout the global credit markets -- a situation that has made market participants uneasy in recent weeks.

Greece's parliament is beginning to debate a package that involves $40 billion in spending cuts on Monday, with a vote expected later in the week.  The vote is expected to pass, but by a slim margin as Prime Minister George Papandreou tries to convince members of his PASOK party, which controls Parliament, to vote "yes."

Fresh data on the U.S. economy came largely in line with estimates. Personal spending was flat in the month of May, short of a 0.1% increase economists expected. Spending increased at the lowest rate in 20 months.

Personal income ticked higher by 0.3%, also missing estimates by 0.1 percentage points.

Core PCE, which is a price gauge the Fed pays close attention to, was up 0.3%, a slightly wider increase than the 0.2% Wall Street was expecting.  On a year-over-year basis, the index was up 2.5%.

Energy markets were mixed after tumbling last week. The euro climbed 0.61% on the U.S. dollar and the greenback fell 0.27% against a basket of world currencies.

Light, sweet crude fell 55 cents, or 0.6%, to $90.61 a barrel.  Wholesale RBOB gasoline jumped 3 cents, or 1.1%, to $2.81 a gallon.

Consumer gasoline prices slid over the weekend.  A gallon of regular gas costs $3.57 on average, down from $3.65 last week and $3.80 last month, but well higher than the $2.76 drivers paid last year, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.

In metals, gold fell $4.50, or 0.3%, to $1,496 a troy ounce.  Silver plummeted $1.05, or 3%, to $33.60 a troy ounce.

Corporate News

Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE:SWK) bid $1.2 billion for Swedish security services firm Niscayah.

Nissan (NYSE:NSANY) said it is looking to boost its global market share to 8% by 2017 from 5.8% in March.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Chairman John Mack is likely to leave the company by the end of the year, sources tell FOX Business' Charlie Gasparino.

Pain Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTIE) shares plunged after it said it could take significantly longer than a year to take measures necessary to glean regulatory approval for Remoxy, a pain drug it partnered with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) to develop.

Foreign Markets

The English FTSE 100 was up 0.38% to 5,720, the French CAC 40 edged higher by 0.31% to 3,797 and the German DAX fell 0.23% to 7,105.

In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 tumbled 1% to 9,578 and the Chinese Hang Seng dipped 0.59% to 22,042.