New York, Sept 15, 2021 (AFP)
Wall Street stocks climbed early Wednesday as markets sought to shrug off recent weakness and digested disappointing Chinese economic data.
Growth in China's retail sales sank in August to a 12-month low, as parts of the country were hit by lockdowns and other containment measures to fight the worst Covid outbreak since its initial spread in 2020.
The disappointing Chinese data comes ahead of Thursday's US retail sales report. Analysts will use that to gauge the extent of the drag on consumers from the Delta variant of Covid-19.
About 35 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4 percent to 34,719.88.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.3 percent to 4,457.69, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.1 percent at 14,044.91.
Stocks have been in retreat much of September as analysts weigh the ongoing risk of Covid-19 and a likely tightening of Federal Reserve monetary policy as soon as this fall.
Among individual companies, Microsoft rose 1.2 percent as it lifted its dividend and approved a new share repurchase program of up to $60 billion.
Goldman Sachs dropped one percent after announcing it would acquire GreenSky for $2.2 billion. Goldman said GreenSky, a fintech company focused on home improvement loans, will bolster its push into consumer banking.

Sumber : AFP