Wall Street Indexes Attempt to Rebound, Retail Sales In February Advance

Barry Adams
17 Mar, 2025
New York City

Wall Street attempted to rebound in Monday's trading following a four-week rout that knocked off key indexes in correction territory last Thursday.

The S&P 500 index edged higher after flirting with correction at the close of Thursday, but the benchmark index rebounded 2% in Friday's trading as investors returned to search for bargains in tech stocks.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced for the second session in a row amid demand for artificial intelligence-linked stocks and cloud computing service providers.

As of Friday's close, the Nasdaq is still down about 11%, and the S&P 500 is down about 9% from its high in mid-February, respectively.

Market sentiment recovered in Monday's trading after retail and food services sales rose in February.

Retail and food services sales, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for inflation, increased 0.2% from the previous month and rose 3.1% from a year ago to $722.7 billion, according to a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Retail trade sales were up 0.5% from the previous month and up 3.4% from last year; food and beverage stores were up 3.9% from last year, while nonstore retailers were up 6.5% from February 2024.

In the week ahead, the Federal Reserve is expected to hold steady the federal funds rate range between 4.25% and 4.50%, extending the pause in its rate cycle that began in January.

The Federal Reserve will also release its estimates of GDP growth, jobless rate, inflation, and interest rates.

Investors are also looking forward to the release of industrial production, existing home sales, and housing starts and completions.

On the earnings front, investors are awaiting updates from Signet Jewelers, Five Below, Progressive Corp., Getty Images, FedEx, Nike, Accenture, Lennar, Carnival Corp., Micron Technology, and General Mills.

 

Commodities, Currencies, Indexes, Yields

The S&P 500 index increased 0.4% to 5,659.71, the Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.2% to 17,770.43, and the Russell 2000 index was up 0.3% to 2,049.49.

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes edged higher to 4.05%, 10-year Treasury notes decreased to 4.31%, and 30-year Treasury bonds declined to 4.59%.

WTI crude oil increased $0.58 to $67.76 a barrel, and natural gas prices edged lower by $0.05 to $4.05 a thermal unit.

Gold increased by $4.53 to $2,987.36 an ounce, and silver edged down by $0.33 to $33.44.

The dollar index, which weighs the US currency against a basket of foreign currencies, decreased 0.17 to 103.55 and traded at a two-year high.

 

U.S. Stock Movers

Charles Schwab Corp. surged 4.9% to $77.11 after the financial services company released its monthly activity report for February.

Core net new assets brought to the company by new and existing clients totaled $48.0 billion, an increase of 44% from $33.4 billion a year ago.

Total client assets equaled $10.28 trillion as of month-end, up 16% from $8.88 trillion in February 2024 and down 1% from $10.33 trillion in January 2025.

New brokerage accounts opened during the month totaled 362,000, representing the fifteenth consecutive month of at least 300,000 new account openings.

February daily average trades rose 1% month-over-month to 7.45 million, driven by a continued interest in equity securities.

Transactional sweep cash increased by $4.7 billion to end February at $404.3 billion, compared to $399.6 billion in January 2025 and compared to $403.2 billion in February 2024.

Buckle Inc. gained 2.8% to $36.13 despite the fashion retailer reporting declining sales in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Sales edged down to $379.20 million from $382.38 million, net income fell to $77.20 million from $79.58 million, and diluted earnings per share dropped to $1.53 from $1.59 a year ago.

Sales in the full year decreased to $1.22 billion from $1.26 billion, net income fell to $195.47 million from $219.92 million, and diluted earnings per share edged down to $3.89 from $4.40 a year ago.