New York (AFP)
Wall Street opened higher on Friday after strong retail sales for September and three sessions of losses.
At 1.30 p.m. GMT, the flagship Dow Jones (DJIA) index advanced 0.50% and the Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, gained 0.38%.
The broader S&P 500 Index was up 0.37%.
On Thursday, the New York Stock Exchange ended slightly down during a hectic week, still paralyzed by health and political concerns.
The Dow Jones had yielded 0.07% to 28,494.20 points, the Nasdaq had lost 0.47% to 11,713.87 points and the S&P 500 had dropped 0.15% to 3,483.34 points.
On Friday, investors welcomed in particular the good retail sales for September, a sign of a recovery in consumption.
Retail sales rose much more than expected in September compared to August, according to Commerce Department data released Friday, rising 1.9% after slowing over the summer as analysts banked on an increase of 0.6%.
"These gains in sales were generalized and driven by increases in discretionary purchases (note: not essential), which could validate the expectations of a huge rebound in GDP growth in the third quarter," said Patrick O ' Briefing Hare.
"It's strong, strong, strong", also rejoiced Chris Low of FHN Financial indicating that this augured "an increase in GDP of more than 30% in the third quarter".
The Pfizer laboratory gained 1.71% after announcing that it would request emergency authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine from the American authorities during the third week of November.
Amazon was up 1.22% and the Zoom video conferencing app, which had jumped 5.33% the day before after announcing a new service, was still gaining almost 3% soon after opening.
© 2020 AFP