US preopen: Wall Street set to move higher

Wall Street´s main market gauges were being called to start the session with modest gains, albeit with the benchmark S&P 500 set to retest its record highs.

As of 15:02 BST, the Dow Jones 'mini' contract was 34.0 points higher to 17,949.00, the S&P 500 mini up by 2.50 points to 2,110.75 and the Nasdaq 100 mini by another 5.50 points at 4,531.00.

The S&P 500 finished less than 1% below its all-time record high of 2130.82 points (on a closing basis) set on 21 May 2015 in the previous session and technical analysts at HSBC were eyeing the possibility of a 'melt-up' in stocks.

According to the broker´s analysts, recent price action in the S&P 500´s sector index for industrials and in the so-called FANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon.com, Netflix and Alphabet) might be signalling a further move to the upside, Bloomberg reported.

"This is further evidence that a melt up in U.S. stocks is becoming an increasing probability," they reportedly wrote to clients.

Aside from a renewed push higher in energy quotes, there were few fresh developments on the economic front.

US labour productivity for the first quarter was revised slightly higher from a preliminary estimate of -1.0% to -0.6% in annualised terms. In parallel, unit labour costs jumped by 4.5%.

"In her speech yesterday, Chair Yellen mentioned slow productivity growth as an important uncertainty to the outlook of the US economy in the medium term. We agree and expect modest productivity growth over the next few years and see limited scope for an imminent return to its pre-recession trend growth," analysts at Barclays said in a research report sent to clients.

To take note, on Monday evening US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton reportedly managed to secure the support of enough delegates in order to clinch the Democratic party´s nomination for president.

Valeant Pharma, Gannett in the headlines

Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals pluned after the company slashed its profit forecast for 2016.

Gannett Co. said it would continue to push its hostile bid for rival Tribune Publishing, because it thinks it has enough support among shareholders to go over the Board´s head.

Stock in fashion retailer Ralph Lauren were out of favour after the company said it would book up to $550m in charges as part of its plans to revamp its supply chain. Management also now expects full-year sales will drop at a low single-digit rate.

Overnight, The Wall Street Journal revealed that Verizon was ready to bid $3bn for Yahoo´s web assets.