The three major stock indexes on Wall Street opened higher.
As of 10:52 a.m. on the 10th (local time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average on the New York Stock Exchange was up 205.01 points, or 0.39%, at 50,332.88. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 was up 12.27 points, or 0.18%, at 6,977.09, and the Nasdaq composite was up 31.66 points, or 0.14%, at 23,270.33.
Retail sales in December last year, released this day, fell short of market expectations. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. retail sales in December last year (seasonally adjusted) were $734.967 billion, unchanged from the prior month. That undershot the market expectation for a 0.4% increase.
Previously, U.S. retail sales rose an unexpected 0.6% in November last year from the prior month, which includes the Thanksgiving shopping season, raising hopes for strong consumption. However, with the unexpected weakening in consumption in December, there are concerns that the U.S. economy may find it difficult to sustain as solid a growth path as expected.
Expectations for interest rate cuts are steadily growing. According to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) FedWatch tool, the federal funds futures market priced the probability of a March rate cut at 21.6%, up from 17.2% the previous day.
The market is focused on the employment report to be released on the 11th. Charlie Ripley, vice president of the portfolio institutional sector at Allianz Investment Management, said, "Retail sales indeed came in below expectations," and said, "This suggests that as the economy moved through the fourth quarter last year, it may not have been as strong as people expected."
By sector, consumer staples and utilities were strong, while communication services and consumer discretionary were weak.
Coca-Cola fell nearly 2% after guidance for this year provided in its fourth-quarter earnings release came in below market expectations. TSMC rose more than 3% after announcing it posted a record-high monthly revenue of 401.3 billion Taiwan dollars in January this year. Ferrari gained more than 9% as its fourth-quarter results beat market expectations.