Stock Market Opens In The Green As Wall Street Kicks Of July 4th Week

U.S. stocks opened firmly higher Monday, putting the main benchmarks on track to climb to start July, the third quarter, and the first half's first trading day. The U.S. stock market is slated to wrap at 1 p.m. Eastern and the bond market is slated to close an hour later in observance of the July 4 holiday. The Dow Jones Industrial rose 0.4% at 21,431, the S&P 500 index advanced at 0.4% at 2,434, while the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.5% at 6,174. The shortened holiday sessions is expected to result in lower-than-average trading volume, but the day won't be absent key economic reports. At 10 a.m. Eastern, an ISM manufacturing piece is due., with economists polled by MarketWatch expecting a reading of 55.5% for the key manufacturing gauge. A May report on construction spending also is due to arrive at that hour, with growth of 0.3% anticipated. June data on vehicle sales will be posted throughout the session. In corporate news, shares of Tesla Inc. were trading higher after CEO Elon Musk said production for its Model 3 electric car should start this Friday. Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note was at 2.30% and crude-oil futures were firmly higher, up 0.9% in early trade.