Yahoo Finance Stocks - Wall Street Rises After Strong Retail Earnings
Investing.com – Wall Street rose on Thursday after more strong earnings from retailers continued to underscore that the U.S. consumer remains resilient.
The Dow jumped 131 points, or 0.5%, by 9:49 AM ET (13:49 GMT), while the S&P 500 rose 8 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite was up 17 points, or 0.2%.
Retail earnings were mostly higher on Thursday after a strong performance by Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW) and Target (NYSE:TGT) on Wednesday.
Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) surged 9% after the department store operator posted strong second-quarter profit, despite missing forecasts on sales, while Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE:DKS) gained 4.6% on upbeat earnings.
L Brands (NYSE:LB) slumped 11.7% after the Victoria’s Secret parent lowered its quarterly earnings outlook due to declining sales at its lingerie chain
The Fed’s annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyo. is in focus as officials are expected to comment on the health of the U.S. economy over the next two days and give more insight into the central bank’s policy.
The meeting minutes from the Fed’s July meeting showed the FOMC saw the quarter-point cut more as a recalibration of policy rather than the strart of steady cuts, but another cut in the September meeting is still forecasted by the markets.
"Without sounding like a broken record, the danger is most definitely that Chairman Powell disappoints (on expectations he will signal more rate cuts)," said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at online trading platform Oanda.
"It is hard to see Powell announcing or implying an aggressive new easing cycle in isolation when just a month ago, the FOMC was clearly very split as well."
Elsewhere, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 1.1% after rumors that Volkswagen’s CEO is interested in buying a stake in the company, which VW denies.
In commodities, crude oil rose 0.4% to $55.90 a barrel, while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.2% to 98.010. Gold futures lost 0.1% to $1,514.35 a troy ounce.
-- Reuters contributed to this report
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