Record highs for Wall Street in store again

Today 8:46 AM ET (S&P Capital IQ)

The S&P 500 finished at yet another record high on Tuesday and U.S. stocks are shaping up for more small gains based on Wednesday's pre-market action. It is expected to be a relatively quiet session on the economic data front, with the weekly mortgage index number out already and no other events on the calendar until Thursday morning's unemployment claims. At last check, the NASDAQ 100 is hovering at yesterday's closing price and the S&P 500 is advancing 0.1% based on pre-market futures trading. Asian markets moved higher overnight across the board. The Shanghai SEC gained 0.8%, the Taiwan TSEC picked up 0.7%, the Hong Kong Hang Seng added 0.6% and the Nikkei 225 lagged behind, rising only 0.2%. Chinese financial and insurance companies led the way higher. In Europe, the major indices are relatively flat so far this morning. The FTSE 100 and French CAC 40 are each higher by 0.1%, while the Euronext 100 is just below break-even. German unemployment data rose slightly in May, surprising market watchers. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is facing an investigation by the British Serious Fraud Office and Nestle struck a deal with Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) to buy some pieces of that company's skin care business. In commodities, crude oil and gasoline are down slightly, while natural gas is up a bit. Metals are mostly unchanged. The U.S. Dollar is weaker against the Yen but higher versus the Euro. The Bitcoin global average is at $569.21. In pre-market trading, Weyerhaeuser (WY), Lincoln National Corporation (LNC), Twitter (TWTR) and Walt Disney (DIS) are all moving up. Moving down are 3D Systems Corporation (DDD), Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).