Retail Expectations Give Stocks a Boost

With falling gas prices and the holiday shopping season ready to kick off on Black Friday, investors were betting on retail.  The major benchmarks all closed higher Monday, driven by gains in retail stocks. The S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary sector was the day’s best performing sector, climbing almost one percent.

Market Radar - % Change

Nymex Crude Oil which had snapped a seven week losing streak started off this week lower, falling 0.95% to settle at $75.78 per barrel down $0.73.  Gold prices also retreated slightly, losing $1.8 or 0.15% to settle at $1,196.60 per ounce.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid back into positive territory at the very end of trading to close at 18,817.90, up 7.84 points or 0.04%.  The S&P 500 climbed 5.92 points to close at 2,069.41 up 0.29%.

The NASDAQ Composite saw strong gains climbing 41.92 points to close at 4,754.89, up 0.89%.  The NASDAQ 100 rose 33 points or 0.78%% to close at 4,284.32.

The Small cap Russell 2000 surged 1.24%, out-pacing the other benchmarks and closed at 1,186.94, up 14.52 points.  The Fox 50 closed at 1,455.88 up 3.49 points or 0.24%.