Trader's Highlight

DJI - NEW YORK, June 27 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday as stronger-than-expected economic data helped lift energy stocks, overshadowing concerns a European Union summit will not yield tangible progress in easing the debt crisis.

The energy sector showed the strongest gains among the 10 major S&P 500 groups, rising 1.9 percent as oil prices settled higher at $80.21 a barrel. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp  jumped 9 percent to $41.24 and was the biggest advancer on the S&P 500.

Worries about Europe have fed dramatic selloffs in stocks lately, but the declines have been tempered by enough short-term buying to keep the market confined to a range. 

Sentiment was helped by better-than-expected sales of long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods in May, although excluding transportation and defense items, orders were down.

In other data, signed contracts for home purchases jumped to a seven-month high. The PHLX housing sector index climbed 3 percent, taking the year-to-date gains near 26 percent.

Shares of Lennar Corp, the third-largest U.S. homebuilder, rose 4.8 percent to $28.70 after it reported a rise in new orders for the fifth straight quarter. 

"Sentiment is pretty negative. When you get people this depressed, markets have a tendency to bounce and that is pretty much where we are at right now," said Doug Foreman, director of equities at Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management, an affiliated manager of Virtus Investment Partners in Los Angeles, California. 

Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc's surged 28.7 percent to $11.39 on news that U.S. health regulators approved the drugmaker's pill to treat obesity, the first weight-loss drug in 13 years. The Nasdaq biotech index <.NBI> gained 1.5 percent. 

But uncertainty remained ahead of the euro zone leaders' summit, which begins on Thursday. Few anticipate anything concrete to emerge from the two-day meeting after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said debt sharing, an idea backed by France, Italy and Spain, would not happen in her lifetime.

Healthcare stocks were in focus heading into Thursday's U.S. Supreme Court decision on President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare law. Some investors have their attention on stocks less likely to be affected by the ruling, such as large pharmaceuticals.

Many investors expect the requirement that uninsured Americans purchase health insurance to be overturned, "so people have had plenty of time to position their portfolios for that," said Foreman.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> gained 93.32 points, or 0.74 percent, to 12,627.99. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> advanced 11.89 points, or 0.90 percent, to 1,331.88. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> added 21.26 points, or 0.74 percent, to 2,875.32. 

The market's rise came on light volume of 5.75 billion billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq. The daily average year-to-date is 6.84 billion. 

Shares of Vivus Inc and Orexigen Therapeutics Inc jumped following the FDA approval of Arena's obesity drug. The companies are also hoping to bring their medicines to market. Vivus shares were up 7.4 percent to $28.33 and Orexigen Therapeutics rose 20.3 percent to $4.92.

Some of Wall Street's top analysts published their research on Facebook Inc , and most are cautiously optimistic. Facebook shares fell 2.6 percent to $32.32 after gaining more than 20 percent in the prior two weeks.

Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 2,354 to 654, while on the Nasdaq, advancers beat decliners 1,766 to 706.

NYMEX - NEWYORK, June 27 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures rose on Wednesday as slower North Sea oil production due to an oil workers strike and supportive U.S. economic data countered concerns about the euro zone debt crisis.

Weekly government data showing U.S. crude oil and distillate stocks fell last week in the United States also supported crude prices.

CBOT SOYBEAN, June 27 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade corn futures were higher on Wednesday as hot and dry weather threatened to slash U.S. crop production.

* Extremely hot weather is expected to move across the southern portion of the U.S. Midwest through the weekend, taking a toll on corn and soybean crops, an agricultural meteorologist said. "Temperatures will rise to the upper 90s (degrees Fahrenheit) to low 100s F from eastern Kansas, southeast Nebraska, Missouri, southern Iowa, southern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio," said Andy Karst, meteorologist for World Weather Inc.

* Karst said scorching temperatures up to 115 F were posted on Tuesday in western Plains States and the heat wave was moving east. There is the potential for showers in the northern Midwest late this week and again next week and some minimal showers were possible in the driest areas of the Midwest as well. But "definitely there will be more crop deterioration this week. There won't be enough rain to slow deterioration," he said.

* U.S. CIF basis bids for corn shipped by barge to the U.S. Gulf Coast fell on Wednesday under pressure from weak export demand and rising futures prices.  Interior cash corn basis bids were steady to lower as farmers sold some crop supplies, dealers said.

FCPO - SINGAPORE, June 27 (Reuters) - Malaysian crude palm oil futures edged down on Wednesday as investors bet a summit of European leaders later this week is unlikely to resolve the region's lingering debt crisis soon.

Losses were limited in a quiet trading session, as hot and dry weather in the United States crimped the soybean crop, fuelling expectations of tighter oilseed supply that may eventually lift palm oil prices.

"There's no new lead in terms of local sentiment, that's why the market is locked in a range of 3,000 to 3,050 ringgit. Immediate support is at 3,000 ringgit," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Malaysia.

"The weather is going to have a strong influence on the palm oil market in the near term. Palm oil is supported by the dry weather in the U.S. especially because it's the planting season." 

Benchmark September palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange lost 0.2 percent to close at 3,025 ringgit ($948) per tonne, after trading in the 3,004-3,043 ringgit range.

Traded volumes were thin at 17,235 lots of 25 tonnes each, compared with the usual 25,000 lots as traders were looking for further cues to enter the market.

On the technicals front, Reuters market analyst Wang Tao posted a bearish quarterly outlook, saying palm oil could fall to 2,390 ringgit over the next three months.

Demand remains healthy with Malaysian palm oil exports showing an uptrend for the first 25 days of the month. Traders expect the trend to continue on last-minute buying leading up to the Muslim fasting month starting in end-July.

Palm oil's steep discount to soybean oil also provided an upside for prices, especially as the drought in the U.S. Midwest threatened to limit the oilseed supply further.

Traders are also watching the U.S. Department of Agriculture's June acreage report for soybeans on Friday. 

Brent crude oil fell on Wednesday on mounting concerns that European leaders would fail to solve the region's intractable debt crisis at a key meeting this week, offsetting tighter North Sea oil supply. [O/R]    

In other vegetable oil markets, U.S. soyoil for July  delivery inched up 0.3 percent in late Asian trade. The most active January 2013 soyoil contract on Dalian commodity exchange closed 0.1 percent lower.     

REGIONAL EQUITY - BANGKOK, June 27 (Reuters) - Stocks in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand rose to one-week closing high on Wednesday as buying interest picked up in large cap stocks and banking shares recently hit by falling appetite for riskier assets.

Singapore's Straits Times Index gained 1.3 percent, reversing four sessions of losses, Jakarta's Composite Index and Thai SET index both rose for a second session, adding 1.4 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively.

Domestic institutions were bullish on Thai stock market as growing domestic consumption boded well for the outlook of certain sectors such as consumer and banking, but some foreign funds remained cautious, said Viwat Techapoonphol, senior strategist at broker Tisco Securities.

Foreign investors continued to take money out of Thai stocks, with the outflows extending for the second month, in line with Indonesia but contrasting with inflows into the Philippines, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Thai stocks had net foreign selling of $430 million in the month to June 26, ahead of Indonesia's net foreign outflows of $272 million for the same period while the Philippines reported $160 million worth of foreign inflows.