May 28, 2013-Stocks Close Higher Finding Lower Trend Support

Stocks continue to turn in a strong performance in mid-day trading on Tuesday, offsetting the weakness that was seen last week. While buying interest has waned somewhat from earlier in the session, the markets have maintained a very positive bias. The major averages have pulled back off their best levels of the day but currently remain firmly in positive territory. The Dow is up 152.67 points or 1 percent at 15,455.77, the Nasdaq is up 38.69 points or 1.1 percent at 3,497.83 and the S&P 500 is up 15.35 points or 0.9 percent at 1,664.95. The strength on Wall Street comes as some traders are buying on the dip that was seen last week, which ended a four-week winning streak for the major averages. Traders have also reacted positively to some upbeat U.S. economic data, including a report from the Conference Board showing that consumer confidence jumped to a five-year high in May. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index surged up to 76.2 in May from an upwardly revised 69.0 in April. Economists had expected the index to climb to 71.5 from the 68.1 originally reported for the previous month.