Stock market today: Dow in fresh record close as Powell signals rate cut incoming
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* Morgan Stanley jumps on raised targets, earnings
* Chipmakers rise after TSMC's strong outlook
* Dec. retail sales rise in-line with estimate
* Indexes up: Dow 0.57%, S&P 0.56%, Nasdaq 0.64%
(Updates to early afternoon)
By Sruthi Shankar
Jan 16 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 crossed the 3,300 mark for
the first time and the other main indexes hit record highs on
Thursday, as encouraging retail sales data and upbeat Morgan
Stanley earnings added to optimism from the signing of an
initial U.S.-China trade deal.
The Wall Street bank MS.N jumped 8% to the top of the S&P
500 after it beat quarterly profit estimates and raised its
performance goals, closing out big U.S. lenders' earnings on a
strong note. Sentiment was further lifted by data that showed U.S. retail
sales rose 0.3% in December, in-line with economists' estimates.
The numbers indicated the U.S. economy maintained a moderate
growth pace at the end of 2019 and eased concerns about the
health of the sector following disappointing holiday sales
reports from Target Corp TGT.N and J.C. Penney Co Inc JCP.N .
"The consumer needs to be strong and evidence of that is
retail sales, which came in pretty well after some slowing over
the last several months," said Tom Martin, portfolio manager at
Globalt in Atlanta.
Technology stocks .SPLRCT , which have fueled the recent
rally, provided the biggest support. Microsoft Corp MSFT.O
rose 1.1% and chipmakers gained after a strong forecast from the
world's top contract chipmaker TSMC 2330.TW TSM.N .
Stock markets hit new highs after Washington and Beijing on
Wednesday signed a deal that paused an 18-month long tariff war
that had bruised financial markets and crimped global growth.
China is expected to boost purchases of U.S. goods and
services in exchange for the rolling back of some tariffs as
part of the deal, but several thorny issues remain unresolved.
"We're in that environment where investors say - we've got
low yields and a potentially re-accelerating economy and an
earnings growth that is looking to be somewhere between 5% and
9%," said Martin.
Analysts expect profits at S&P 500 companies to have dropped
0.4% in the fourth quarter, but full-year 2020 earnings are
estimated to grow 9.6%, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
At 1:05 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 0.57% to 29,195.01.
The S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.56% to 3,307.74 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was up 0.64% at 9,318.25.
Among other stocks, Signet Jewelers Ltd SIG.N soared 42.6%
after raising 2020 adjusted earnings estimate.
Bank of New York Mellon Corp BK.N slid 7.8% to the bottom
of the S&P 500 after the custodian bank missed profit estimates.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.76-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 2.75-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 86 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 177 new highs and four new lows.