US markets climb on encouraging economic data

14 Jun 2013 Evaluate

The US markets climbed higher on Thursday, with the S&P 500 index marking its best day in five months, bolstered by upbeat economic data and a late-session report in the Wall Street Journal that eased worries about the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy, which states that the Fed expects a considerable amount of time to pass between ending the central bank’s bond-buying program and raising short-term rates. The Federal Open Market Committee will issue a monetary-policy decision next week. On the economy front, the Commerce Department stated that US retail sales rose in May at the fastest rate in three months, led by higher demand for autos, building materials and groceries. Retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.6% last month. Yet the details of the retail report were somewhat mixed in a sign of lingering softness in the American economy. US gross domestic product is expected to expand less than 2% in the second quarter and the latest sales figures contain little evidence that growth is about to speed up. Business inventories rose 0.3% in April to a seasonally adjusted $1.66 trillion, the Commerce Department reported. Sales fell 0.1% in April. As a result, the ratio of inventories to sales edged up to 1.31 from 1.30 in March.

Separately, the number of people who applied for new regular state unemployment-insurance benefits fell 12,000 to 334,000 in the week ended June 8, reaching the lowest level since early May, pointing to a slower pace of layoffs. The four-week average of continuing claims, which reflect the number of people already receiving benefits, fell 12,750 to 2.97 million, hitting the lowest level since April 2008.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 180.85 points or 1.21 percent, to close at 15,176.10, S&P 500 edged higher by 23.84 points or 1.48 percent, to close at 1,636.36 while Nasdaq added 44.93 points or 1.32 percent, to end at 3,445.36.

The Indian ADRs closed mixed on Thursday, HDFC Bank was up by 0.66%, Tata Motors was up 0.13% and ICICI Bank was up 0.05%. On the other hand, Infosys was down 0.11% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down 0.05%.

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