NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks opened higher Thursday following a better-than-expected US retail sales report and a round of mostly solid corporate earnings.
Overall retail sales climbed 0.6 percent in June to $720.1 billion, reversing the 0.9 percent decline in May. The figures topped analyst expectations.
Besides the retail sales, another week of modest weekly US jobless claims provided reassurance on the economy, said Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management.
“We’ve been worried about earnings and trade wars, but the economic data (…) remains resilient,” Hogan said.
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About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5 percent at 44,459.85.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent to 6,277.12, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.3 percent to 20,784.75.
Since the stock market closed Wednesday, several companies from different sectors have reported earnings. In general, the reports have been solid or good, analysts said.
Among the big movers after results, United Airlines jumped 5.8 percent, PepsiCo gained 5.9 percent and Abbott Laboratories fell 7.3 percent.
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