US open: Stocks move higher after commodity price declines

Stocks on Wall Street were registering slight gains in early morning trading in New York with some analysts citing the recent decline in commodity prices for the move.

"To be fair the global outlook for indices seems to be brighter in the wake of yesterday’s Fed minutes, if only because everyone seems to be glad to get the issue out of the way for a while," said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp.

"The recent fall in commodity prices might provide some temporary relief on inflation, and perhaps earnings season will surprise on the upside when it kicks off next week."

As of 1603 BST, the Dow Jones Industrials was up by 0.89% to 275.01 to 31,313.03, alongside a 1.16% or 44.48 point advance for the S&P 500 to 3,890.05 while the Nasdaq Composite was ahead by 1.68% or 190.74 points to 11,552.10.

In the background, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were advancing by 5.41% to $103.94 a barrel on the ICE while the US dollar spot index was little changed down just 0.07% to 107.01.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was trading six basis points higher alongside to 2.99%.

Overnight, the minutes of the Federal Reserve's showed that in mid-June rate-setters in Washington D.C. were intent on moving to restrictive and perhaps more restrictive policy settings if inflation continued to be a problem.

"It was clear from the minutes that the committee members remained highly focused on culling inflation, even if it was at the expense of a sharp economic slowdown," said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst for Asia-Pacific at Oanda.

"I believe there will be no wimp-out by the FOMC at the end of this month, as that would achieve exactly the opposite plus interest."

On the economic side of things, initial weekly unemployment claims were reported at up slightly by 4,000 to 235,000 (consensus: 230,000).

But according to Nancy Vanden Houten, lead US economist at Oxford Economics, said: "While anecdotal reports of layoffs are increasing in some sectors, labour markets remain quite tight and demand for workers is still historically high."

Still ahead for later on the day, St.Louis Fed president, James Bullard, was due to deliver a speech at 1800 BST.

His colleague Fed governor Christopher Waller, was scheduled to deliver one as well at that same hour, but at a different venue.