Market Wrap for Tuesday, June 17: Stocks Jump to Start Trading Week; Dow Rallies Triple Digits

The U.S. stock market rose on Monday after a series of volatile moves last week. Investors snapped up shares on expectations that the Federal Reserve will reinforce its commitment to monetary stimulus to support the economic recovery.

The Fed is expected to provide clarity on its intentions at the end of a two-day meeting on Wednesday. The stock market gapped sharply higher at the open on Monday, but pared gains in afternoon trade.

Nevertheless, the Dow finished the day up a little better than 100 points, with the S&P and Nasdaq recording similar percentage gains.

Major Averages

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 110 points, or 0.73 percent, to 15,180.

The S&P 500 added roughly 12 points, or 0.76 percent, to 1,639.

The Nasdaq rose a little less than 29 points, or 0.83 percent, to 3,452.

Commodities

Crude oil prices were largely unchanged on Monday. At last check, NYMEX crude futures were down 0.01 percent to $97.84. Brent crude futures lost 0.32 percent and were trading at $105.59. Natural gas jumped better than 4 percent on the session to $3.89.

COMEX gold futures fell 0.35 percent on Monday. Silver was last trading down a little better than 1 percent to $21.76. Copper futures had shed 0.28 percent and were trading at $3.1925.

In the grains complex, corn and wheat were mixed. Near the close, corn futures were up a little more than 1 percent while wheat had lost 0.04 percent. Movers in soft commodities included cocoa and sugar. At last check, cocoa was down 1.69 percent while sugar had climbed slightly less than 1 percent.

Bonds

Bond prices fell as money moved into equities. At last check, the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NYSE:TLT) was down 0.64 percent to $113.09. Yields rose as prices fell on Monday.

The 2-Year Note yield was last at 0.26 percent while the yield on the 5-Year Note had risen to 1.05 percent. The 10-Year Note was yielding 2.17 percent while the 30-Year Bond yield was sitting at 3.35 percent.

Currencies

The U.S. Dollar was slightly lower to start the trading week. Near the close of equities, the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE:UUP), which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, was down 0.11 percent to $21.85.

The closely watched EUR/USD pair was last unchanged at $1.3341. The USD/JPY rose 0.62 percent and the AUD/USD was trading down around 0.75 percent on the sesssion.

Volatility and Volume

Despite the market rally, the CBOE Volatility Index only weakened slightly on Monday. Late in the day, the VIX was down 1.52 percent to 16.89.

Volume was lighter than normal to start the week. Only around 114 million SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:SPY) shares traded hands compared to a 3-month daily average of 134 million.

Stock Movers

Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) was trading up around 7 percent heading into the close after the company signed a multiyear deal to premiere new original television series created by DreamWorks Animation (NYSE:DWA).

Dreamworks was trading up better than 4 percent late in the session on the Netflix news.

Sony (NYSE:SNE) rose more than 4 percent on anticipation of the company's Playstation 4 next generation gaming console.

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) added almost 3 percent after a positive mention in Barron's. The company will power both the Playstation 4 and new XBOX console.

Hornbeck Offshore (NYSE:HOS) climbed around 6 percent on Monday after the stock was upgraded from Neutral to Overweight at JPMorgan. The analysts also raised their price target on the stock to $66 from $60.

Shipping company Frontline (NYSE:FRO) climbed around 27 percent on the day, although there was no official news to account for the move.

iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) rose around 8 percent after the company was awarded a contract worth up to $30 million from the U.S. Army.

Terex (NYSE:TEX) lost almost 8 percent after the company lowered its 2013 earnings guidance and said that it expects a Q2 profit well below current expectations.

Rexnord (NYSE:RXN) lost more than 7 percent after filing for a public offering of 11 million shares on behalf of its largest shareholder, Apollo Global Management.

Amicus Therapeutics (NASDAQ:FOLD) lost more than 20 percent after a conference call where the company outlined its plans for the regulatory strategy of its Fabry disease treatment, migalastat HCL.

Medivation fell a little less than 7 percent on Monday after Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) purchased Aragon Pharmaceuticals, which is developing a competing prostate cancer drug, similar to Medivation's Xtandi.