Investing.com – Stocks edged higher on Friday morning as retail sales surged to a two and a half year high.
The S&P 500 was up 0.08% at 9:50 AM ET (2:50 PM GMT) and the tech heavy NASDAQ Composite jumped 0.22%, both hitting record highs. The Dow composite increased 0.16%.
Retail sales 1.6% from the prior month, barely missing forecasts for a gain of 1.7%, while inflation only grew by 0.5%. Despite low inflation, consumer sentiment is up, with the University of Michigan reporting a rise of 101.1 in October.
Financial stocks were mixed after an underwhelming earnings release. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) rose 0.65% after its third quarter results beat analysts’ expectations. Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) slumped down 3.87% after reporting a 18.6% decline in quarterly profit, hit by legal costs and falling mortgage banking income.
JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) gained 0.32% while Citigroup (NYSE:C) declined 1.27%. Both banks had beat analysts’ expectations in their quarter earnings.
Meanwhile financial giant Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) fell 0.60% while Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) was down 0.49%.
United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) was among the biggest gainers after the bell, rising 7.73% while movie streaming site Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) rose 1.73% after Goldman Sachs raised its target share price and hit $200 a share for the first time.
Elsewhere, European stocks fell. The pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 was down 0.04% while Spain’s IBEX 35 declined 0.18%. Germany’s DAX inched forward 0.02% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 0.16%. In London, the FTSE 100 slid 0.25%.
In commodities, gold futures rose to $1,304.11 10 an ounce while crude oil increased to $51.34 a barrel after China reported an 18.6% rise in imports.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, decreased to 92.66.