U.S. Stocks Resume Their Rally

Stocks closed broadly higher Tuesday, lifting the S&P 500 and the Dow Industrials indices to fresh intra-day records. The gains were supported by the Federal Reserve reporting the amount of debt held by Americans continued to decline during Q1, falling to its lowest level since mid-2006. Separate reports found a small drop in import prices during April while a measure of optimism among small-business owners ticked higher last month. All 10 industry sectors in the S&P 500 finished higher, led by energy and materials stocks -- with both sectors climbing over 1% despite declines for most commodities.

U.S. Data
U.S. households reduced their total borrowings to $11.2 trillion during the January-to-March period, down $110 bln from the prior quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Tuesday. Since peaking at $12.7 trillion during Q3 of 2008, consumers have now reduced their collective debt load by 11.8%. Student debt was the exception to deleveraging trend, rising to a record $986 bln in Q1.

The Fed also said debt repayments improved and delinquencies declined during the first three months of the year. Mortgage delinquencies fell 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter to 5.4% in Q1 while late payments on home equity loans slipped 0.3 percentage points to 3.2% and on credit cards by 0.4 percentage points to 10.2%.

Import prices last month declined for a second month in a row, sliding 0.5% during April from the previous month, the Labor Department reported. Lower petroleum prices was the primary reason for the new dip, falling 1.9% month over month. Excluding petroleum, import costs fell just 0.1%. Over the past 12 months ended April 30, import prices are down 2.6%.

Business Optimism
Also Tuesday, the National Federation of Independent Business's optimism index increased to 92.1 last month from a 89.5 reading in March. The 2.6-point gain marked the biggest advance since October 2010 with four of the index's 10 component measurements contributing to the advance, the trade group said. Small businesses increased hiring in April for the fifth straight month, albeit at a lackluster pace.

Commodities settled mostly lower as investors continue to rotate out of the sector. Crude oil for June delivery (CLM13.NYM) isettled 96 cents lower to $94.21 per barrel while June natural gas (NGM13.NYM) rose 9 cents to $4.03 per 1 mln BTU. June gold settled $9.80 lower at $1,424.70 an ounce while July silver slipped 32 cents to $23.37 per ounce. July copper fell 7 cents to finish at $3.29 per share.

Here's Where U.S. Markets Stood At Day's End

• Dow Jones Industrial Average up 123.57 (+0.82%) to 15,215.25
• S&P 500 up 16.57 (+1.01%) to 1,650.34
• Nasdaq Composite up 23.82 (+0.69%) to 3,426.61

• Hang Seng Index down 0.26%
• Shanghai China Composite Index down 1.11%
• FTSE 100 Index up 0.67%

• (+) NYNY, The largest individual shareholder of the racing and casino company exercises subscription rights to purchase additional stock granted in the company's ongoing rights offering, generating $6.9 mln in additional proceeds for NYNY.
• (+) SYNC, Invited to participate in the 2013 Google I/O Developer Sandbox beginning Wednesday in San Francisco.
• (+) IOC, Reports diluted Q1 EPS of $0.08, beating analyst estimates looking for a $0.12 per share net loss. Net sales rose 3.6% to $350.3 mln, beating the Street view by $18.84 mln.
• (+) PDII, Posts Q1 earnings of $0.14 per share, reversing a $0.02 per share net loss last year and easily beating analyst expectations looking for a $0.11 per share loss. Revenue rose to $42.9 mln, also topping estimates. Forecasts 25% revenue growth in FY13.

• (-) VELT, Q1 net sales of $41 misses by $1.14 mln, overshadowing a $0.07 per share beat for an adjusted net loss of $0.27 per share. Lowers FY13 sales to $267.5 mln or less; Street is at $259.65 mln. Guides Q2 revenue below consensus.
• (-) OPXA, Posts Q1 net loss of $0.58 per share, $0.17 wider than its year-ago loss.
• (-) MOSY, Prices underwritten public offering of 6.5 mln shares of its common stock at $4 apiece.
• (-) HIIQ, Reports Q1 pre-tax loss and warns of headwinds in 2013 due to changes to U.S. health insurance regulations it believes could cause confusion and "potential disruptive actions" from competitors.