While you were sleeping: US stocks continue rally as Brexit fears fade

Stocks on Wall Street notched their second straight day of gains as investors kept their focus on the Brexit referendum in the UK on Friday (NZ time).

Markets have moved in tandem with public opinion polls that have triggered steep movements in equities, bonds and currencies around the world.

In the past week, stock markets have fallen sharply when polls tilted toward a Leave vote and rebounded just as quickly when they veered toward Remain.

“Investors aren’t willing to commit to anything ahead of the referendum,” Remi Olu-Pitan, multiasset fund manager at Schroders, told Dow Jones.

Recent polls have been mixed but betting markets have increasingly pointed to a victory for “remain,” lifting stocks in Europe, which largely continued Monday’s gains.

The Stoxx Europe 600 closed up 0.7%, notching its third consecutive day of gains. The FTSE 100 finished 0.4% higher.

Gold for June delivery fell 1.5% to $US1270.50 an ounce. The metal is being used as a hedge against Brexit risks, and its decline reflects investors being more optimistic the “remain” camp will win, Ms Olu-Pitan says.

Fed's Yellen remains cautious
Earlier in the day, Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen delivered her semiannual testimony to the Senate Banking Committee.

While she struck a slightly cautious note, investors said her remarks were largely in line with what they had expected, and stocks were little changed in the hours after her comments.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 25.86 points, or 0.1%, to 17,820.73, closing up for a second consecutive day. The S&P 500 gained 0.3% to 2099.90 and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.1% to 4843.76, recovering from losses earlier in the session.

Shares of telecom and energy companies in the S&P 500 rallied, climbing 0.7%. Energy shares made their gains even as US crude oil pulled back 1.1% to $US48.85 a barrel on concerns about a persistent oversupply of crude.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note rose to 1.699%, from 1.670% on Monday. 

The US dollar gained 0.9% against the yen to ¥104.752 after Japan’s finance minister said the government wouldn’t intervene in the currency markets “easily.”