News That Moved Thursday's Market

U.S. Markets

Dow +52.43 (+0.41%)
Nasdaq +12.75 (+0.52%)
S&P 500 +5.11 (+0.37%)

News That Moved the Market

Markets Get Some Support From the Consumer. The major indices bounced around between unchanged and up 0.5%-1.0% throughout the day. Earlier Thursday, retail chains released April sales number. Consumers shopped more at discount retailers, helping Wal-Mart (WMT, +0.6%) and Costco (COST, -1.2%) beat expectations. Though it was a good to see these large retailers outperform expectations, investors should not forget inflation is not taken into account when looking at the figures, and companies' sales were padded by higher food and gas prices. Also, retailers discounted heavily, putting pressure on margins. Expect the retail environment to stay difficult and competitive, even with refund checks on the way.

Quick Tics: Toyota Motors (TM, -4.0%) reported a 28% decrease in profits and issued a dissapointing outlook for the year…Best Buy (BBY, -3.2%) announced it will invest $2.1 billion in a joint-venture with Carphone Warehouse in Europe…The ECB and BOE both held rates steady this morning.

Tomorrow

Notable Earnings (Full List Here):
Clear Channel Communications (CCU) Before Open

Economic Events:
8:30 AM: International Trade
10:00 AM: RBC CASH Index