Equities are broadly higher after the Labor Department released its Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP) report for June.  The economy is still expanding, and interest rates remain in check.  All 11 sectors of the S&P 500 are in the green, even the banks are participating in the rally.  For the moment, trade tariffs have taken a back seat to strong economic data as we have been predicting it eventually would.       

Advancers are significantly outperforming decliners 2254/645 on the NYSE and 2075/702 on the Nasdaq; At midday, 225 million shares have traded on the NYSE and 825 million on the Nasdaq.

The markets also received good news on the trade deficit.  The U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services showed a narrowing of the deficit in May.  Exports were $215.3 billion, $4.1 billion more than April, while imports were $258.4 billion, $1.1 billion more than April.  Exports increased more than imports leading to a narrowing of the deficit by $3 billion.  Year-over-year the deficit increased 7.9%.

• Civilian aircraft exports +$1.9 billion
• Soybeans exports +$2.0 billion
• Capital goods imports +$2.1 billion
• Goods deficit with China +$1.2 billion to $32.0 billion
• Goods deficit with the EU -$1.3 billion to $11.9 billion

One of today’s market winners is Biogen (BIIB), a biotech stock rallying on positive results regarding its Alzheimer’s drug.  The stock is currently up 15% after being up as much as 22%. 

Have a great weekend.