Wall Street Kicks Off Week on a High Note

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U.S. equity markets flipped into positive territory as traders shrugged off concerns about China's housing market.

Today's Markets

As of 3:27 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 15.8 points, or 0.09%, to 16506, the S&P 500 climbed 6.4 points, or 0.34%, to 1884 and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 31.4 points, or 0.77%, to 4122.

Wall Street receded from record highs last week as traders digested mixed corporate earnings and economic data.

A report overnight showed Chinese property prices rose 6.4% on an annual basis in April, from 7.2% the month prior. Meanwhile, prices fell on a month-over-month basis in eight of 70 cities. The housing market in the world's No. 2 economy has been cooling down swiftly, raising concerns about its fragile debt markets.

"We think the risks of a disorderly correction in China’s property market are clearly growing," analysts at Barclays wrote in an e-mail to clients.

Economists at Nomura echoed that sentiment, citing "concerns over the state of China’s property markets grows, consistent with our China economists’ views that the property market is already under way and poses a serious threat to China’s overall economic growth this year" as a major driver of the weakness seen across global equities.

This week is fairly quiet on the U.S. economic front, with a handful of reports due out on the housing market, as well as minutes from the Federal Reserve.

On the corporate front, AT&T (NYSE:T) said it would buy DirecTV (NYSE:DTV) in a cash-and-stock deal valued around $48.5 billion, creating a national broadcast behemoth. Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) boosted its bid for AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) to about $117 billion, but the UK-based firm rejected the offer.

Elsewhere, U.S. stock-index futures rose 80 cents, or 0.78%, to $102.82 a barrel. Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline rose 0.55% to $2.99 a gallon. Gold advanced $7.90, or 0.63%, to $1,301 a troy ounce.