Wall Street around its highest levels of the year

Wall Street around its highest levels of the year

The US indexes continued there positive movement on Monday as investors cheered the retail sales rebounded more than expected in October. The major stock indexes rose more than 1 % to the new year highs after the Commerce Department said retail sales rose 1.4 % in October, more then 0.8 % increase forecast by economists.


It was a sharp rebound following the 2.3 % drop in September. Meanwhile, General Motors Co. said it lost $1.2 billion in the period since emerging from bankruptcy and the end of the third quarter on Sept. 30. Despite the loss, GM said it will begin to repay $6.7 billion in government loans and was seeing stabilization in its business. Home improvement retailer Lowe's Cos. reported lower profits that matched analysts' expectations and said it was seeing stabilization in some of the hardest hit housing markets. The company's shares fell 5 % to $21.80. Dell Inc. rose 2 % to $15.71. Sprint Nextel Corp. jumped 11 % to $3.43. The third-largest U.S. mobile- phone carrier said it paid off $1 billion in debt. Apollo Group Inc. advanced 8 % to $58.14 as the education company said its University of Phoenix subsidiary has been recertified by the U.S. Department of Education for continued participation in student financial aid programs. Nordstrom gained 3.2 % to $35.06. The U.S. department-store chain was raised in rating by Goldman Sachs, which said the company will benefit of a recovering high end consumer.
The broader stock indexes advanced as S&P 500 increased 1.45 % to 1,109, while Nasdaq composite added 1.38 % to 2198.