US stocks closed higher on Thursday, August 15, with the Nasdaq leading the way after July retail sales data showed strong consumer spending, easing concerns about a possible recession in the US economy.
Economic data showed U.S. retail sales rose 1% in July, beating market expectations by increasing 0.3% compared to a revised 0.2% decline in June. Initial U.S. jobless claims for the week ending August 10 fell 7,000 to 227,000, beating expectations of 235,000. The New York Empire State Manufacturing Index improved to -4.7 in August, its highest level in six months.
Nine of the S&P 500's 11 major sectors rose, led by consumer discretionary and information technology, while real estate and utility stocks closed lower.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.39% to close at 40,563.06, the S&P 500 gained 1.61% to close at 5,543.22 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.34% to close at 17,594.50.
Asian Markets Today
On Friday, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average closed 3.88% higher at 38,127.50, driven by gains in the power, real estate and insurance sectors. Japanese investors significantly increased purchases of overseas bonds as the yen weakened on hopes of a more cautious stance on interest rate hikes from the Bank of Japan. Foreign investors also resumed purchases of Japanese stocks and bonds as the yen stabilized. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.34% to close at 7,971.10, driven by gains in the energy, materials, metals and mining sectors. India's Nifty 50 rose 1.64% to close at 24,540.55 and the Nifty 500 rose 1.67% to close at 23,051.95. China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.07% to close at 2,879.43. Meanwhile, the Shenzhen Composite Index rose 0.11% to close at 3,345.63, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.88% to close at 17,430.16.
Eurozone 6:15am ET
The European STOXX 50 index rose 0.64%, Germany's DAX rose 0.70%, France's CAC fell 0.27%, and the UK's FTSE 100 fell 0.44%.
Items at 6:15am EST
WTI Crude Oil was down 2.06% to trade at $76.53 a barrel, Brent was down 1.78% to trade at $79.61, Natural Gas was up 0.68% to trade at $2.212, Gold was up 0.54% to trade at $2,505.60, Silver was down 0.54% to trade at $28.258 and Copper was down 0.79% to trade at $4.1182.
US Futures 6:15am ET
Dow futures fell 0.02%, S&P 500 futures fell 0.07%, and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.04%.
Forex at 6:15am ET
The US Dollar Index was down 0.16% to 102.81, USD/JPY was down 0.51% to 148.50 and USD/AUD was down 0.35% to 1.5056.
Photo credit: Pavel Bobrovskiy (via Shutterstock)
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