Why Wall Street's rally seen continuing at open

IN THE NEWS TODAY

Following the S&P 500's biggest one-day gain since March 11, futures were pointing to an extension of Tuesday's rally, with investors apparently becoming more comfortable with the idea of a possible June interest rate by the Fed. (CNBC)

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told CNBC a rate hike in June or July is not set in stone, but labor data suggests it's time to pull the trigger. Meanwhile, regional Fed presidents Patrick Harker, Neel Kashkari, and Rob Kaplan speak today. (CNBC)

Oil was trading around $50 per barrel this morning, after industry data suggested a larger-than-expected drawdown in stockpiles last week. The government's weekly inventory report is out at 10:30 a.m. ET. U.S. crude settled Tuesday at its highest level since October. (Reuters)

Euro zone finance ministers agreed with Greece and the IMF today, on what they called a "breakthrough" deal to address requests from Athens for debt relief. Over the weekend, Greece agreed to more austerity and reform measures. (CNBC)

Protesters outside last night's Donald Trump rally in Albuquerque threw rocks at police horses and set fires, according to authorities and social media posts. Inside, the presumptive GOP nominee continued attacks on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. (NY Times)

Microsoft (MSFT) is signalling the end of its Nokia experiment, cutting as many as 1,850 smartphone jobs and taking a charge of $950 million. After acquiring Nokia's phone business for $7.2 billion two years ago, Microsoft in 2015 wrote off $7.6 billion and cut 7,800 jobs. (The Verge)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) reported earnings that met expectations and announced a spinoff of its enterprise services unit, which will merge with Computer Sciences (CSC). Shares of Computer Sciences surged nearly 30 percent in the premarket, while HPE gained about 10 percent. (CNBC)

Apple (AAPL) is developing a Siri-based rival to Amazon's Echo home assistant, according to The Information. Apple is also said to be preparing a software developer kit so that app developers can create their own Siri-powered apps.

Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google unit has unveiled changes to its advertising business, which will bring bigger ads atop search results. Google also plans to expand ads on its maps service, with companies buying what's called promoted pins. (The Verge)

Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel funded Hulk Hogan's high-profile legal case against Gawker Media, Forbes reported. Earlier this week, Gawker's founder told the New York Times he suspected Hogan's lawyer was being paid by someone else.

The House Homeland Security committee holds a hearing today to try and come up with legislation to address the increasingly long lines facing travelers at airport security checkpoints. The TSA's top security officer was fired Monday. (USA Today)

A new survey of people with Obamacare insurance or Medicaid shows relatively high levels of satisfaction with their coverage, as proposed insurance prices for 2017 start to come out. But those levels were lower than results of a similar poll last year. (CNBC)

CEOs at the biggest companies got a 4.5 percent pay raise last year. That's almost double the typical American worker's, and a lot more than investors earned from owning their stocks. (AP)

BY THE NUMBERS

The Commerce Department releases April trade deficit figures at 8:30 a.m. ET. Then a half hour later, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is out with its home price index for March and the first quarter.

Slightly higher mortgage rates did not deter home buyers looking for a loan last week. Mortgage application volume increased 2.3 percent, according to the weekly survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Tiffany (TIF) and Express (EXPR) — both missing estimates with quarterly results — are among the handful of companies releasing earnings this morning, while Costco (COST), HP Incorporated (HPQ), Lions Gate (LGF), PVH Corporation (PVH), and Williams-Sonoma (WSM) are out with earnings reports after today's closing bell.

Arthur J. Gallagher (AJG) replaces Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) in the S&P 500 after the close of trading Friday. CCE is merging with two other global Coke bottlers to form Coca-Cola European Partners. The new company, with headquarters in Spain, is ineligible for continued inclusion in the index.

STOCKS TO WATCH

Monsanto (MON) remains in the news, a day after rejecting a $62 billion offer from Germany's Bayer but leaving the door open to talks. Bayer has responded, saying it looks forward to holding constructive discussions.

Sanofi (SNY) will put forth a slate of candidates to replace the entire board of drug maker Medivation (MDVN), after its $9.3 billion unsolicited takeover bid was rejected in late April.

Toyota (TM) struck a ride-sharing partnership with Uber, making a strategic investment and giving Uber drivers new leasing options through the automaker.

Lockheed Martin's (LMT) F-35 stealth jet fighter is expected to be tested in 2018 rather than the second half of 2017, due to the length of time needed to configure test aircraft with up to date software.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) is being investigated by U.S antitrust officials over new incentives that encourage distributors to sell more of the company's brands rather than competing craft beers.

WATERCOOLER

The government is spending about 75 percent of its technology budget maintaining aging computer systems, including platforms more than 50 years old in vital areas from nuclear weapons to Social Security. One still uses floppy disks. (AP)