NASDAQ Sets a Historical High – Boosted By Retail Sales

US stocks have ended the week’s trading on a flat, even though the NASDAQ hit a record high for a second day. The more than disappointing July retail sales had caused some fears that stocks would all drop but the market still maintained its surge to make a new high. On Thursday, the Dow, S&P and NASDAQ had all made all time records all for the first time since 1999 and a flop on Friday would spoil the party. The NASDAQ reached 5232.89, a 0.1% rise from the Thursday high. The DOW and S&P 500 however didn’t achieve the same fete on Friday, as they fell 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.

Most of the market activity was spurred by the retail sector

The retail sector was the determining factor at Wall Street for two straight days. The retail sector had earlier on posted better than anticipated readings from some popular individual retailers such as Nordstrom and Kohls. retailers and this raised the hopes for the retail sales. The markets in turn had high hopes that the overall retail sales will be much better than the earlier predicted 0.5%but that did not happen. The retail sector remained flat for the month July. The rally had earlier on made a big gain in the broader market.

Retail data in the USA is considered a big deal because 70% of economic activity in the whole of USA comes from consumer activity. Consumer trends are a reliable way through which people can get a rough idea of how the economy is performing. The Q2 results put the GDP gains at 1.2% and that was mostly driven by consumer spending, coupled by weak business investment. The fixed income market on the other hand saw the 10 year treasury notes yield down 1.51% after it closed 1.57% down the day before.

NASDAQ to make smaller firms easily tradable

The NASDAQ Inc had last week announced that there are plans underway to raise the amount paid to listed firms for the support they contribute to exchange traded funds. The routine is aimed at making ETFs easier to trade. There is already a lively atmosphere in terms of trading liquidity but it remains obvious that there are lesser-known brands that still need more support if they are to be easily traded. The public needs more avenues to place low-volume trades and Nasdaq Inc as a special rebate for newly listed ETFs among other incentives.

264 exchange traded products were recorded in the last year compared to 241 recorded in the previous year. The number of firms trading 5000 shares or more had grown by 10% in the same period.