Stocks rise broadly on retailers’ gains

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose broadly in afternoon trading on Wall Street Thursday as investors cheered a strong set of quarterly results from Macy's and other retailers.

The S&P 500 rose 2.1% as of 12:38 p.m. Eastern and is solidly in the green for the week following a choppy few days of trading. The S&P 500 is coming off seven straight weekly losses, its longest such stretch since 2001.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 525 points, or 1.6%, to 32,647 and the Nasdaq rose 2.8%. Smaller company stocks also made strong gains, a sign of bullishness on the economy. The Russell 2000 index rose 2.5%.

Bond yields rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which helps set interest rates on mortgages, rose to 2.78% from 2.74% late Wednesday.

Retailers led the broader market higher. Macy's surged 17.1% after it raised its profit forecast for the year following a strong first-quarter financial report. Dollar General surged 13.1% and Dollar Tree jumped 20.5% after the discount retailers reported solid earnings and gave investors encouraging forecasts.

The retail sector is being closely watched by investors looking for more details on just how much pain inflation is inflicting on companies and consumers. Weak reports from the several big companies last week, including Target and Walmart, spooked an already volatile market.

"We're not convinced that we're completely out of the woods here," said Philip Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Hermes. "There were a lot of negative reports last week and what those companies have talked about is what is going on through the economy."