(MENAFN– ecpulse)
The U.S. local stock market started and closed the week on a higher not after a strong retail sales report that indicated growth was accelerating following the winter.
Stocks got a boost after the Commerce Department reported that retail sales rose 1.1% last month, the biggest monthly gain since September 2012 and exceeding the 0.8% expected by economists. Excluding auto sales, retail sales grew 0.7%, topping forecasts of a 0.4% rise.
The strong increase suggests that sales are bouncing back after the cold winter kept many consumers at home earlier in the year.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note ticked up to 2.650% from a seven-week low of 2.619% late Friday.
The early gain followed a sharp selloff last week, in which continued weakness in previously hot biotechnology and new-generation technology stocks put particular pressure on the Nasdaq Composite Index.
That sharp selling wave, in which the NASDAQ Composite suffered the biggest weekly percentage-loss June 2012, started spreading into larger, blue-chip stocks on Wall Street.
The Dow Industrials ended last week with the biggest two-day decline in over two-months.
Many on the so-called ‘momentum stocks’ have been hit hard in recent weeks bounced back on Monday. The NASDAQ Biotechnology index gained 1.7% early in the session, though it still remains down 7.3% in April following heavy selling earlier in the month.
Facebook was up 1.71%, while Tesla Motors fell 0.35%. Also helping provide an early lift to sentiment, banking giant Citigroup rose 3.54% after reporting first-quarter earnings and revenue that exceeded analyst estimates.
Despite the recent weakness, longer-term investors still believe the outlook for stocks is favorable, as the fundamentals that have helped push the market to new highs this year and the years before—such as an improving economy, low interest rates and inflation and an accommodative Federal Reserve—will eventually beat the selling.
-The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.91% to 16173.24
-The S&P 500 Index advanced 0.83% to 1830.61
-The NASDAQ Composite gained 0.57% to 4022.69 . As of 16:15 p.m. ET
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