US: S&P 500, Nasdaq end at record highs after solid retail data

Wall Street stocks rose to fresh record highs on Thursday (Jul 16) as markets focused on solid US retail sales data and corporate earnings rather than lingering worries about US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.5 per cent to 6,297.36, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.8 per cent to 20,885.65, its fourth straight closing record.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.5 per cent to 44,484.49.

Analysts expect the bullish sentiment in the markets to continue until there is a reason for it to stop.

Investors are taking a wait-and-see approach to Trump’s Aug 1 tariff deadline and not overthinking the president’s denial that he plans to fire Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.

“Right now, as long as the markets don’t have a reason to sell off, they are going to go up,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers. “The news on the economy this week has been good enough.”

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Investors were wary heading into the second-quarter earnings season, but “the data so far and the earnings are coming in better than expected”, said Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital Management.

US retail sales climbed 0.6 per cent in June to US$720.1 billion, reversing the 0.9 per cent decline in May and easily topping analyst expectations.

But with tariffs and inflation a growing worry, the strong retail sales trend appears likely to moderate, said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData.

“However, it is still unlikely that the consumer will fall into a full-blown recession, especially so if interest rates come down,” Saunders said.

Among individual companies, United Airlines climbed 3.1 per cent as it offered an upbeat outlook on travel demand in the second half of 2025 despite reporting a drop in second-quarter profits.

PepsiCo was another outperformer, winning 7.5 per cent as analysts cited its revenue growth after three straight quarters of lower sales. AFP