The US markets closed higher on Wednesday, led by advances in the health-care and technology sectors, pushing the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to a two-week high, as a slowdown in retail sales boosted speculation the Federal Reserve won’t be forced to raise rates sooner than anticipated. On the economy front, sales at US retailers in July had the weakest growth in six months, dragged down by auto dealers, in a disappointing start to the third quarter. Overall retail sales were basically unchanged in July, ticking up only a tiny fraction from June. Excluding autos, retail sales rose 0.1% in July, also missing forecasts that called for growth to hold steady at 0.4%. Data details released showed that July sales fell 0.2% for auto dealers, 0.1% for furniture and home furnishing stores, and 0.5% for general merchandise stores. Meanwhile, sales rose 0.3% at food and beverage stores and 0.1% at gas stations. Business inventories rose 0.4% in June to a seasonally adjusted $1.74 trillion. Sales advanced 0.3% in June. The ratio of inventories to sales remained at 1.29 in June.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 91.26 points or 0.55 percent to 16,651.80, Nasdaq was up by 44.88 points or 1.02 percent to 4,434.13, while the S&P 500 gained 12.97 points or 0.67 percent at 1,946.72.
Indian ADRs closed mostly in green on Wednesday; HDFC Bank was up 0.90%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up 0.58%, Infosys was up by 0.50%, ICICI Bank was up by 0.36% and Tata Motors was up by 0.36%.
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