Retail Sales Data Give Wall Street a Lift

Originally published on Fox Business FOX Business: The Power to Prosper A strong reading on U.S. retail sales, along with a smattering of mildly upbeat reports from the eurozone, pushed the markets into the green on Tuesday. Today's Markets As of 10:40 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 21.7 points, or 0.16%, to 13191, the S&P 500 gained 1.9 points, or 0.14%, to 1406 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 3.3 points, or 0.11%, to 3026. The S&P 500 snapped a six-session winning streak on Monday, but still remains higher by close to 12% for the year. The pace of releases of data on the world economy is picking up steam and stealing the attention of traders on both sides of the Atlantic. The Commerce Department reported retail sales climbed 0.8% in July from June, the largest increase since February and higher than economists' expectations of a 0.3% rise. Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG, called the report a "welcome development," but wrote in an e-mail that the data do not "change the overriding story, one of weak consumption growth." Continue reading this article here.