Markets Up At Opening

The markets opened up across the board this morning as Wall Street expressed affection for the results of the federal government's stress test of the nation's 19 largest financial institutions, set for release today.

In the first 15 minutes of trading, the Dow is up 50 points, or half of 1 percent.

The broader S&P 500 is up about 1 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up half of 1 percent.

The markets also seem buoyed by today's promising retail news. Retailers such as Aeropostale and Target posted strong April numbers.

Also, the government announced this morning that new jobless claims plunged to their lowest level in 14 weeks. Still, the number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits rose to 6.35 million, as the official unemployment figure stands at 8.5 percent. (We always say "official," because the Labor Department does not count as unemployed those who have given up looking for work, meaning the actual number is higher than 8.5 percent by some amount.)

Wall Street appears to have shrugged off, or already priced in, GM's announcement this morning of a $6 billion first-quarter loss.

-- Frank Ahrens
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