Wall Street closes higher despite poor US data
Major equity indexes in the U.S. were able to shrug off disappointing industrial production and retail sales data from the U.S. to close the day with modest gains on Friday.
Today's data showed an unexpected contraction in monthly retail sales in August and a 0.9% decline in industrial production. Commenting on the data, “investors are keeping an eye on the retail sales data, thinking it may be transitory, and are focusing on growth areas such as technology, which is mostly immune to policy decisions in DC and has avoided all the global noise,” Michael Antonelli, managing director of institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee, told Reuters.
Technology sector staged a robust rebound on Friday, led by Apple shares, which gained more than 1% and closed higher for the first time since the introduction of the new iPhone on Tuesday. The S&P 500 information technology sector .SPLRCT gained 0.3% after recording losses in the two previous sessions.
All three major indexes recorded new record highs during the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 22,263.28 points, adding 0.27%. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3%, or 19.38 points, to 6,448.47 and finally the S&P 500 added 0.12% to close at 2,497.00.
Headlines from the U.S. session:
- Bitcoin rebounds on Friday, gains more than 10%
- US Dollar loses momentum ahead of 92, looks to close week slightly higher
- Economic data under close watch by the Federal Reserve - Wells Fargo
- US Business inventories to add to Q3 GDP - Wells Fargo
- US Industrial Production: Harvey pummels production of nondurables goods - Wells Fargo
- NY Fed's GDP Nowcast plummeted to 1.3% for Q3 of 2017
- US: Retail sales for Aug 2017 were $474.8 bln, a decrease of 0.2% from July
- US: Industrial production declined 0.9% in Aug following six consecutive monthly gains
- US: Consumer confidence edged downward in early September - UoM
- US: Manufacturers’ and trade inventories were at $1,873.9 bln, up 0.2% from June