US close: Late boost from retailers sends Dow higher for 11th straight session

By Sharecast News

Sharecast News | 26 Feb, 2017

Updated : 19:39

An end of day spurt of buying saw retailers' shares jump, sending the Dow Jones Industrials higher for an 11th straight session and contributing to a fifth straight weekly gain for the S&P 500 amid historically-low levels of volatility.

That matched the Dow Industrials' best streak since 1987.

The Dow Jones Industrials ended the session up by 0.05% or 11.44 points to 20,821.76, as the S&P 500 gained 0.15% or 3.53 points to 2,367.34 and the Nasdaq Composite tacked on 0.17% or 9,80 points to end the day at 5,845.31.

At the start of trading, the S&P 500 had threatened to break its run of higher weekly closes as investors grew more cautious about the exact calendar for tax cuts in the States and ahead of a key speech from Trump before Congress set for 28 February.

However, towards the close of trading a report from Axios surfaced that the White House disagreed with US House Republicans's plans for a border tax.

Such plans constitute a threat for the many retailers who import their wares from abroad.

Axios later reported the White House had called its report of Trump chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn's comments to executives at a private event "inaccurate". Cohn had neither given his support nor opposed those plans, the White House said.

In corporate news, Foot Locker climbed 9.38% as the retailer beat quarterly profit forecasts.

Department store chain Nordstrom gained 5.74% as it also beat earnings expectations late on Thursday, whereas JC Penney tumbled 5.83% after it reported a drop in sales and said it will close up to 140 stores in the next few months.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise fell 6.89% after reporting lower sales than expected for the first quarter late on Thursday and cutting its earnings projections for the fiscal year.

RH, formerly Restoration Hardware, surged 24.41% after the furnishings retailer forecast higher-than-expected quarterly results late on Thursday.

From a sector standpoint, the best performance was seen in the following industrial groups: Apparel retailers (2.51%), Distillers (2.35%) and Electronic Office Equipment 1.88%.

On the data front, US consumer sentiment weakened in February, according to the final reading from the University of Michigan.

The consumer sentiment index printed at 96.3, better than the preliminary estimate of 95.7 but below January's 13-year high of 98.5 and the reading of 91.7 in February 2016. Analysts had expected a reading of 96.0.

Meanwhile, the current economic conditions index nudged up to 111.5 in February from 111.3 the previous month and 106.8 in the same month last year. The index of consumer expectations - the more important one of the two - fell to 86.5 from 90.3 in January, but was up from 81.9 in February 2016.

Elsewhere, figures from the Commerce Department showed new home sales in January were up 3.7% from December's revised rate of 535,000 to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 555,000, and 5.5% above the January 2016 level. Analysts had been expecting a bigger jump on the month to 570,000.

The December reading was revised down a touch from a previous estimate of 536,000.

Yields on benchmark 10-year US Treasuries fell back by six basis points to 2.32% following the above mixed reports on the economy.

Front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures edged higher by 0.01% to $56.04 as the US dollar spot index moved higher by 0.14% at 101.12.

Dow Jones - Risers

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $72.39 1.51%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $36.53 0.97%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $145.95 0.86%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $122.73 0.85%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $34.32 0.82%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $57.86 0.82%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $34.26 0.59%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $50.60 0.58%
General Electric Co. (GE) $30.19 0.57%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $110.32 0.54%