Wall Street Marches Ahead As Retail Sales Squelch Slowdown Fears

Wall Street's main indices rose about 1% on Thursday as retail sales data for July indicated resilient consumer spending, alleviating fears of an imminent recession in the world's biggest economy, as reported by Shubham Batra and Shashwat Chauhan for Reuters.

All megacap and growth stocks edged up.

All megacap and growth stocks edged up, with Tesla leading the pack, rising by 4.1%. Nine of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were trading higher, with consumer discretionary and materials leading gains.

Retail sales increased by 1.0% last month after a downwardly revised 0.2% drop in June, easing fears of a sharp economic slowdown that had been fanned by a jump in the unemployment rate last week.

"The economy is not going into a recession imminently. This will take 50 basis points in September off the table. I still think that 25 basis points make sense just because inflation continues to ease," said Steve Wyett, chief investment strategist at BOK Financial.

The yields on the two-year and 10-year Treasury notes rose after the data, with traders increasing their bets for a 25 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve to 75%, up from 65% before the data.

Retail bellwether Walmart added 7.5% after raising its annual profit forecast for the second time this year, as Americans continued flocking to its stores for inexpensive essentials.