Wall Street shrugs off early losses

On Thursday, Wall Street shrugged off early losses because a sudden dive in retail sales affected investor hopes for progress at the everlasting US-China trade negotiations in Beijing.

As a matter of fact, the S&P 500 managed to jump a bit, staying above its 200-day moving average, which is a major technical level. As for the Nasdaq, it turned positive, and the Dow was still lower, suppressed by consumer staples as well as tariff-sensitive industrials.

All three key American stock indexes were held back by rate-sensitive financial shares because American Treasury gains went down on weaker-than-anticipated economic data.

Negotiations to defuse the everlasting tariff conflict between the world's two leading economies shifted to a higher level as US-China talks definitely progressed in Beijing ahead of the approaching March 1 deadline.

However, optimism about the trade negotiations was ruined by a report from the US Commerce Department that disclosed that in December retail sales faced their greatest dive for over 9 years.

Additionally, the Labor Department pointed to a sudden jump in unemployment claims as well as an unforeseen dive in producer prices, hinting at a deceleration in American economic activity.

Besides this, the Dow Jones Industrial Average headed south by 0.04% ending up with 25,532.05. As for the S&P 500, it surged by 0.04% too, reaching 2,754.1. The Nasdaq Composite rallied by 0.33% being worth 7,445.05.

Of the 11 key sectors in the S&P 500, five found themselves in negative territory. Consumer staples as well as financials demonstrated the greatest percentage dives.

Cisco Systems Inc managed to rally by 2.7% on the heels of a better-than-anticipated earnings report because the network gear maker derived benefits from strength in newer businesses and also neglected the impact of the US-China trade conflict.

Amazon.com slumped by 0.7%.

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