Wall Street rallies as retail sales soothe slowdown fears

By Abigail Summerville

(Reuters) -Wall Street's main indexes jumped on Thursday, with the Nasdaq rising more than 2% after July U.S. retail sales data signaled resilient consumer spending, allaying fears of an imminent recession in the world's largest economy.

Nine of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors traded higher, with consumer discretionary and technology rising 3.1% and 2.3%, respectively.

Retail sales increased 1.0% last month after a downwardly revised 0.2% drop in June, easing fears of a sharp economic slowdown fanned by a jump in the unemployment rate last week.

Retail bellwether Walmart (NYSE:WMT ) added 6.5% after raising its annual profit forecast for the second time this year as Americans flocked to its stores for inexpensive essentials.

Rival Target also jumped 3.6%, while Costco (NASDAQ:COST ) advanced 1.5%.

A separate reading also showed the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly last week.

"The wall of worry is beginning to crumble as sentiment is improving and the fundamentals support a risk-on bias," said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. "Retail sales were above expectations, Consumer Price Index numbers came in at a tolerable level, so the fundamental backdrop is consistent with rising equity prices."

The yield of two-year and 10-year Treasury notes rose after the data, with traders increasing bets for a 25-basis-point rate cut by the Federal Reserve to 76.5%, versus 65% before the data.

Investors have cautiously eyed this week's economic data releases, the last set before Fed Chairman Jerome Powell delivers a much-awaited speech at Jackson Hole next week.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq extended their winning streaks six consecutive sessions.

As of 2:45 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 547.87 points, or 1.37%, to 40,556.26, the S&P 500 gained 87.94 points, or 1.61%, at 5,543.15 and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 401.03 points, or 2.33%, to 17,593.63.



Among other movers, Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO ) rose 6.9% after it forecast better-than-expected first-quarter revenue and said it was cutting 7% of its global workforce.

Nike (NYSE:NKE ) climbed 4.6% as billionaire investor William Ackman built new stakes in the sportswear company. Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA ) jumped 11.6% after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa ) acquired a stake in the cosmetics store chain.

Source: Investing.com