Stocks, Bonds, And Orange Juice Are Moving Higher

Markets are off to a good start this week, with stocks, bonds, and orange juice all headed higher in Monday morning trading.

Right now, the S&P 500 is up 0.5%, trading at 1663. Earlier, it made a high of 1666.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, at 2.89%, is 4 basis points lower from Friday's close, and 10-year Treasury futures are up 0.4%.

Gold is up 0.3% on the day, trading at $1390 an ounce after falling as low as $1382 earlier this morning.

And orange juice futures are up 3.4%, headed for their biggest daily gain since May.

Miller Tabak chief economic strategist Andrew Wilkinson previews the week ahead in a note to clients this morning:

As far as the U.S. is concerned there is little on the horizon for Monday to create enthusiasm other than a late-in-the-day review of consumer credit data for July. Tuesday delivers wholesale inventories followed by import price data due midweek. Price data rolls in on Thursday while investors will have to await the juiciest news of the week until Friday when the impact of back-to-school shopping will be under the microscope in the August retail sales report. At the same time we'll learn the latest gauge of consumer confidence courtesy of pollsters at the University of Michigan.

Risk assets in general are finding support today.

"Faster export growth out of China over the weekend coupled with added vigor from a revised view of Japanese GDP have created grounds for a much needed rally for emerging markets after a prolonged drubbing," says Wilkinson. "The tone to US trading is bullish beneath the surface and despite a sloppy start to European activity where the rally only drew sellers out of the woodwork."

In Europe, the London FTSE 100, the French CAC 40, and the Spanish IBEX 35 are all 0.3% lower. The German DAX, however, is up 0.1%, and the Italian FTSE MIB is up 1.0%.

Overnight, the Japanese Nikkei advanced 2.5%, while the Hong Kong Hang Seng rose 0.6% and the Australian ASX 200 gained 0.7%.