US stock indices opened higher on Thursday following a better-than-expected retail-ventures-share-price-nse-bse-s0005828″ data-vars-anchor-text=”retail”>retail sales data and on solid earnings.
In the early trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5% at 44,459.85. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.2% to 6,277.12, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.3% to 20,784.75.
Retail sales rose 0.6% in June to $720.1 billion as compared to a 0.9% decline in May.
Besides the retail sales, modest weekly US jobless claims also provided reassurance on the economy.
United Airlines stock jumped 5.8%, PepsiCo surged 5.9% and Abbott Laboratories slumped 7.3%.
Bullion
Gold prices fell on Thursday after upbeat US economic data.
Spot gold fell 0.9% to $3,315.15 per ounce, by 0936 AM EDT (1336 GMT). US gold futures lost 1.2% to $3,320.80.
Spot silver fell 0.8% to $37.64 per ounce and platinum lost 0.6% to $1,408.30.
