By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks opened with robust gains on Friday after an encouraging report on retail sales bolstered sentiment.
“As July is the first month of Q3, we are quite pleased to see the retail-sales data coming in better than expected, even if only modestly so,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG LLC of the 0.5% rise in U.S. retail sales in July.
“The U.S. economy, despite numerous headwinds and indications to the contrary, will not enter a new recession. Business spending remains healthy enough and at least to start the quarter, consumer spending showed a bit of relative strength and we find that mildly encouraging,” Greenhaus added.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +0.49% rose 104.78 points, or 0.9%, to 11,248.09.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index SPX +0.53% climbed 9.18 points, or 0.8%, to 1,181.82.
The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP +0.14% gained 7.56 points, or 0.3%, to 2,500.02.
Advancers beat decliners by a 3-to-1 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange, where 119 million shares had been exchanged within the first 15 minutes of trade.
