The major U.S. index futures are currently pointing to a higher open on Thursday, with stocks likely to extend the upward trend seen over the past several sessions.
Easing concerns about the economic outlook may generate continued buying interest on Wall Street after the Commerce Department released a report showing much stronger than expected retail sales growth in July.
The Commerce Department said retail sales jumped by 1.0 percent in July after edging down by a revised 0.2 percent in June.
Economists had expected retail sales to rise by 0.3 percent compared to the unchanged reading originally reported for the previous month.
Excluding a surge in sales by motor vehicle and parts dealers, retail sales rose by 0.4 percent in July after climbing by 0.8 percent in June. Ex-auto sales were expected to inch up by 0.1 percent.
Shares of Walmart (NYSE:WMT) are also moving sharply higher in pre-market trading after the retail giant reported fiscal second quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates and raised its full-year guidance.
Positive sentiment may also be generated in reaction to a Labor Department report showing an unexpected decline by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended August 10th.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 227,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week’s revised level of to 234,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 235,000 from the 233,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Wednesday but managed to end the day mostly higher. With the upward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 both closed higher for the fifth consecutive session.
The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before closing in positive territory. The Dow climbed 242.75 points or 0.6 percent to 40,008.39 and the S&P 500 rose 20.78 points or 0.4 percent to 5,455.21, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a more modest gain, inching up 4.99 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 17,192.60.
The choppy trading on Wall Street came after the Labor Department released its highly anticipated report on consumer price inflation in the month of July.
The Labor Department said its consumer price index rose by 0.2 percent in July after edging down by 0.1 percent in June. The modest increase by consumer prices matched expectations.
Core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, also crept up by 0.2 percent in July after inching up by 0.1 percent in June. The uptick by core consumer prices was also in line with economist estimates.
Meanwhile, the report said the annual rate of consumer price growth slowed slightly to 2.9 percent in July from 3.0 percent in June. Economists had expected the pace of growth to remain unchanged.
The annual rate of core consumer price growth also slipped to 3.2 percent in July from 3.3 percent in June, in line with expectations.
While the slowdowns by the annual rates of price growth suggest the Federal Reserve is likely to lower interest rates next month, traders may have felt the chances of a rate cut were already priced into the markets after Tuesday’s rally.
CME Group’s FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 64.5 chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point and a 35.5 percent chance of a half point rate cut.
“Investors and policymakers alike will find this report mostly good for markets and the economy,” said Jeffrey Roach, Chief Economist for LPL Financial. “As inflation decelerates, the Fed can legitimately cut rates yet keep policy restrictive overall.”
“Unless the global economy experiences another shock, the Fed will most likely cut rates by a quarter percent in September,” he added. “The probability of the Fed cutting by a half percent is still elevated since investors are still somewhat skittish from recent events.”
Traders may also have been reluctant to continue making significant moves ahead of the release of a slew of U.S. economic data on Thursday, including reports on weekly jobless claims, retail sales and industrial production.
Reflecting the lackluster performance by the broader markets, most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves on the day.
Brokerage stocks have showed a strong move to the upside, however, with the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index surging by 2.1 percent.
Significant strength was also visible among telecom stocks, as reflected by the 1.9 percent jump by the NYSE Arca North American Telecom Index.
Networking and banking stocks also saw some strength, while steel stocks moved notably lower, dragging the NYSE Arca Steel Index down by 1.1 percent.