Wal-Mart beat the forecasts:
The US retail giant Wal-Mart today raised the annual profit forecast after recorded a financial results which were better than expected – $1.07 per share, five cents more than analysts’ forecasts on revenue of $120.9 billion, for the second quarter of the year.
Wal-Mart jumped by 3% in trading before the opening of Wall Street and will open the regular trading hours at the peak of 15 months.
The UK retail sales rose unexpectedly in July.
The warm weather increased the clothing sales and a weakening the pound has encouraged tourism to make purchases in Britain, particularly in luxury stores.
The sales rose by 1.4% compared to June, while analysts viewed that will not be a change from the previous month.
A disappointing US economic data
The retail sales figures remained unchanged in July, while analysts expected an increase of 0.4% in this figure.
In addition, the producer price index disappointed investors after the index fell in July by 0.4% compared to expectations of an increase by 0.1% and compared with the index of June which recorded an increase of 0.5%.
The trade deficit of the United Kingdom expanded in June to 12.5 billion pounds, versus 11.5 billion pounds in May.
The deficit was larger than forecast which stood at 9.6 billion pounds.
The industrial production in June rose by 1.6% (YoY) and -0.1% (MoM), in line with the early expectations.
The industrial output in June rose by 0.9% on an annualized basis, below the forecast of 1.3%.
July jobs report smashed the early forecasts with an extra necklace of 255 thousand jobs, versus forecasts for the addition of only 180 thousand.
The futures contracts on Wall Street are at a positive direction after the report’s release.
This is the second consecutive NFP report which dramatically smashes the forecasts.
The French economy froze in the second quarter after the growth rate was 0%.
This negatively data surprised analysts, who viewed a positive growth of 0.2%.
Most European stock markets open the trading day on Friday with a positive trend.
The CAC rising by 0.2% and the Dax by 0.4%, the FTSE lost 0.2%.
The consumer confidence index for July in the US recorded a reading of 97.3.
This is a higher reading than the analysts’ expectations, which stood at 95.6 points.
In June there was a reading of 97.4 points.
The prices of Oil continues to be traded in declines after yesterday it fell to a low of three months.
Bank of America Corp., the second-largest US bank by assets, reported about a profit of 36 cents per share in the second quarter of this year, compared with a profit of 45 cents a year earlier.
Analysts had a profit forecast of 33 cents per share.
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