Investing.com – Wall Street drifted slightly higher on Monday with the S&P on track to mark another closing high as positive data from China buoyed bullish sentiment in stocks on a day with few references as market players prepped for a week of earnings releases.
At 12:03PM ET (16:03GMT), the Dow Jones inched up 7 points, or 0.03%, the S&P 500 rose 1 point, or 0.03%, while the Nasdaq Composite edged forward 1 point, or 0.02%.
A stronger-than-expected second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) reading out overnight from China helped to buoy bullish sentiment in equities on Monday.
The world’s second largest economy grew 6.9% in the April to June period, beating expectations for the expansion to ease to 6.8%.
Other Chinese data for June such as retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment all beat consensus, rising more than expected.
On a light calendar day for U.S. data, the NY Empire State manufacturing index showed a sharp decline in activity in July, missing consensus estimates.
The economic calendar is sparse this week with the focus on Wednesday’s housing data or Thursday’s weekly jobless claims.
Not so on the business front where investors are setting up for a big week of second quarter earnings. Blue chips Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), American Express (NYSE:AXP), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and General Electric (NYSE:GE) are among some of the names reporting results this week.
Of the 32 S&P firms that had reported prior to Monday’s opening bell, 75% have beat profit estimates on 14.3% growth while 78% topped consensus with sales growth of 6.1%, according to The Earnings Scout.
Amid a small handful of earnings on Monday, BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) gave disappointing news as the world’s largest asset manager missed on both the top and bottom line. Shares sank more than 3%.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) will garner the market’s attention after the close on Monday as investors wait to see how the internet TV network’s bet on original content will affect subscription growth.
Also related to earnings, shares of FedEx (NYSE:FDX) slumped 3% as the worldwide package delivery firm announced that a cyber attack at its TNT Express unit last month would materially affect its full-year results.
Meanwhile, oil prices traded lower in midday North American trade as concerns over rising global supplies remained on investors' minds.
U.S. drillers added two oil rigs in the week to July 14, energy services company Baker Hughes announced on Friday. This brings the total count up to 765, the most since April 2015, underlining concern that the ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production is derailing efforts by other major producers to rebalance the market.
U.S. crude futures lost 0.67% to $46.23 by 12:05PM ET (16:05GMT), while Brent oil traded down 0.45% to $48.69.