Mid-Morning Recap: Light Volume Creates Volatility

As expected, Friday is turning out to be a quiet day ahead of the Memorial Day three-day weekend. Markets have been volatile due to light trading, and roughly 90 minutes into the session all three major indexes are positive.

After taking a dive in the first half hour of trading, the S&P has climbed back with a 0.56% session gain to 893. In a similar pattern, the Dow has moved up 0.67% to 8347, while the Nasdaq is up 0.40% to 1702.

The gains are led by commodities and energy stocks. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar has been falling against the Euro.

With no data hitting headlines all day long, attention will be given to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech to Boston College Law School at 2pm, but if his commencement speech at Harvard last year is any indication, it is unlikely Bernanke will deliver any vital information.