Retailers help lift stocks to records
U.S. stocks climbed for the sixth day in a row Thursday as strong results from retailers such as Best Buy led indexes to record highs. That offset weakness in energy stocks caused by a plunge in oil prices.
Stocks are on their longest winning streak in three months. Retailers, technology firms, makers of household products and healthcare firms made large gains.
The Nasdaq composite joined the Standard & Poor’s 500 in setting record highs. While retailers with physical stores jumped, their online rival Amazon made a sizable gain as its stock price approached $1,000 for the first time.
Small companies were mostly left out of the rally. And even though OPEC and a group of other oil-producing nations extended their cuts in production, the price of oil fell almost 5% and energy firms took steep losses.
Best Buy soared 21.5% to $61.25 after the electronics retailer issued a strong firstquarter report, including better sales of mobile devices and gaming products.
PVH, the owner of brands including Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, climbed 4.8% to $106.98 after it issued its own strong report and raised its annual forecasts.
Other retailers — including Guess, Abercrombie & Fitch and Burlington Stores — also made substantial gains. Amazon rose 1.3% to $993.38 after peaking at $999 during the day.
Kate Warne, an investment strategist for Edward Jones, said she doesn’t think Thursday’s retail earnings signal that business for traditional retailers is improving.
A group of 24 countries including OPEC members and Russia said they will extend their production cuts for nine months in an effort to shore up oil prices. Most analysts expected that, but investors appeared to have gotten their hopes up for a longer extension. And although oil prices have rallied over the last few weeks, experts were skeptical the deal will do much to boost prices.
Benchmark U.S. crude sank 4.8% to $48.90 a barrel. Brent crude slid 4.6% to $51.46 a barrel. Marathon Oil stock fell 7.1% to $13.50.
Technology firms made significant gains. Microsoft rose 1.2% to $69.62. Google parent Alphabet rose 1.5% to $969.54. Apple edged up 0.3% to $153.87.
Wholesale gasoline slid 4 cents to $1.61 a gallon. Heating oil fell 6 cents to $1.55 a gallon. Natural gas fell 3 cents to $3.18 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Gold rose $3.30 to $1,256.40 an ounce. Silver rose 8 cents to $17.19 an ounce. Copper rose 1 cent to $2.60 a pound.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.26% from 2.25%.
The dollar fell to 111.80 yen from 111.90 yen. The euro rose to $1.1205 from $1.1195.