Stock futures rose on Thursday as Wall Street picked up signals that U.S. consumer and labor markets remain strong. Futures tracking the S&P 500 (ES=F) rose 0.5%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq (NQ=F) added 0.6%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) rose 0.6%.
Much of the focus early Thursday was on earnings from retail giant Walmart (WMT), the government’s monthly retail sales data, and an update on unemployment claims. Meanwhile, Walmart shares rose nearly 6% after the company reported a mostly upbeat profit and sales numbers that beat expectations. The company also raised its full-year outlook.
Meanwhile, retail sales last month came in much better than Wall Street expected, suggesting that the U.S. consumer remains fairly resilient. Retail sales rose 1% in July, beating expectations of a 0.4% increase.
Also keeping an eye on the weekly jobless claims numbers, which are usually updated regularly. Last week, jobless claims fell more than expected, sparking a market surge this week. And this week, jobless claims fell again to 227,000, disappointing hopes of a recovery. As Yahoo Finance’s Josh Schaefer writes, with inflation continuing to fall, “it’s the jobs market that’s going to be the call of the hour” for the Fed in the near future.
Stocks have been rallying after a tough start to August, including Wednesday after the Consumer Price Index posted its slowest year-over-year increase since the start of 2021. The S&P 500 has recouped nearly all of its losses from the sell-off that began at the start of the month.
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