Shares on Wall Street gained on Tue. Strong retail spending data and better-than-expected 3Q earnings from Walmart (WMT US, -2.55%) and Home Depot (HD US, +5.73%) signalled US consumers are increasing spending despite inflation worries.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 54.77 pts, or 0.15%, to close at 36,142.22. The S&P 500 index rose 0.39% to 4,700.90, just shy of its record closing high of 4,701.70. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.76%.
The US Commerce Department reported retail sales for Oct rose 1.7% mom, the most since Mar, and beating consensus for a 1.4% gain. Walmart shares slid due to disappointing gross margins.
EV start-up Lucid Group’s shares soared (LCID US, +23.7%) after announcing that reservations for its first vehicles are up and 2022 production plans are still on track. That pushed its market cap to about US$89b. That’s still less than Rivian (RIVN US, +15.2%), the maker of EV trucks, which has a market cap of US$147b.
The 10-year Treasury note yield notched up 1.9 basis points (bps) to 1.6335%.
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.53% to 95.915, its highest level since July 2020.
The most actively traded US gold futures (Dec) contracts settled down $12.50, or 0.7%, at US$1,854.10/oz. December silver, which is the most actively traded silver futures, fell 16.1 cents, or 0.6%, to end at US$24.944/oz.
Bitcoin briefly fell below US$59,000 on Tues, its lowest price this month. In early trade this morning (Wed), the cryptocurrency is trading below US$60,000.
The front-month Brent futures closed up 38 cents at US$82.43/bbl while the front-month WTI futures fell 12 cents at US$80.76/bbl on Tue. The IEA said global output will rise by about 1.5m barrels a day this quarter as the Gulf of Mexico restores supplies halted by Hurricane Ida.
European equity markets finished mixed on Tue. The UK FTSE lost 0.34%,
France's CAC 40 rose 0.34%, while the German DAX advanced 0.61%.
