Traders work at the NYSE floor. Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Friday's retail sales and Goldman Sachs earnings exceeded expectations, pushing stocks higher.
Retail sales for September rose 0.7% in September, beating estimates of a decrease.
After Q3 earnings of $14.93 per share, Goldman Sachs shares rose
US stocks rose Friday with the S&P 500 index climbing to its highest session in months. This was after September retail sales and earnings by Goldman Sachs beat expectations.
Pre-market sessions saw gains in all three major equity indexes. The S&P 500 climbed 1.7% on Thursday, marking its highest day since March. The benchmarks saw gains this week thanks to a possible 1% increase for the Nasdaq Composite.
Friday's stock market rally was supported by the government's retail sales report. It suggested that Americans put aside their concerns about September's spread of the Delta coronavirus variant to buy food and other retail items. Retail sales increased 0.7% last month, surpassing the 0.2% decline predicted by Bloomberg economists.
Here are the US indexes at 9:30 AM on Friday.
Goldman Sachs shares rose following the bank's strong third quarter earnings, which came in at $14.93 per share. This was well above expectations. Goldman joins Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and JPMorgan this week, which posted record-breaking quarterly results.
Bitcoin briefly touched $60,000 on the markets after a report by the Securities and Exchange Commission that the Securities and Exchange Commission will allow the first US bitcoin futures ETF trading to begin next week.
Gold dropped 1% to $1778.97 an ounce.
Oil prices rose. West Texas Intermediate crude oil gained 1% to $82.11 per barrel. Brent oil, an international benchmark, rose 1.1% to $84.94.
Bitcoin rose 3.8%, to $59513.95.
