The stock market opened higher today as investors are optimistic about the U.S. economy and the European debt crisis. Stocks gave up some of these gains briefly this morning after the government said business inventories rose 0.7% in the previous month, slightly higher than the forecasted 0.6%. Stocks went right back up though following a positive retail sales report. Retail sales rose 1.1% making it the largest gain in five months. It will be interesting to see what the next few months hold for retail sales as gas prices have increased drastically over the past month.
The Dow is up 51 points this morning, the Nasdaq is up 15 points and the S&P 500 is up 6 points. [Read more...]