Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] Stocks are in rally-mode after this morning's data, along with earnings and guidance from Walmart (WMT), provided some relief about the labor market and growth prospects.

The pleasing data included July Retail Sales and weekly jobless claims. The S&P 500 sports a 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite shows a 1.5% gain.

In other economic news, total industrial production decreased 0.6% month-over-month in July (Briefing.com consensus 0.1%) following a downwardly revised 0.3% increase (from 0.6%) in June. The capacity utilization rate fell to 77.8% (Briefing.com consensus 78.6%) from a downwardly revised 78.4% (from 78.8%) in June. Total industrial production was down 0.2% yr/yr while the capacity utilization rate was 1.9 percentage point below its long-run average.

The key takeaway from the report is the understanding that it was depressed by Hurricane Beryl, which reduced industrial production by an estimated 0.3 percentage point and manufacturing output by an estimated 0.3 percent. Industrial production wasn't strong in July, but taking the effects of the hurricane into account, it wasn't as weak as it seems either.

Business inventories rose 0.3% in June (Briefing.com consensus 0.2%) following a 0.5% increase in May.

The NAHB Housing Market Index dropped to 39 in August (Briefing.com consensus 43) from 41 in July (revised from 42).

Treasury yields turned sharply higher in response to the slate of data. The 10-yr note yield sits at 3.95% and the 2-yr note yield sits at 4.11%.