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U.S. stocks mildly higher at midday amid retail sales

Xinhua, May 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks shaved early gains to trade slightly higher around midday on Wednesday as U.S. retail sales came out disappointing.

At noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 6.24 points, or 0.03 percent, to 18,074.47. The S&P 500 added 2.31 points, or 0. 11 percent, to 2,101.43. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 10.86 points, or 0.22 percent, to 4,987.05.

U.S. Commerce Department announced Wednesday that the advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for April were 436.8 billion U.S. dollars, virtually unchanged from the previous month, missing market expectations.

"Year-over-year retail sales have been falling since the end of last year, and are now at the lowest point since October 2009. With wage growth hovering near its four-year average, consumer spending will likely disappoint for months to come," said Jay Morelock, an economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

Meanwhile, U.S. import prices declined 0.3 percent in April, after decreasing 0.2 percent in March and 0.4 percent in February, the U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday.

Some analysts believed that that the Federal Reserve would delay interest rate hikes this year due to sluggish economic growth.

In corporate news, before Wednesday's opening bell, Macy's reported earnings of 56 cents per diluted share for the first quarter of 2015, the 13-week period ended May 2, 2015, compared with earnings of 60 cents per diluted share in the first quarter of 2014, missing expectations. Its shares decreased 1.88 percent around midday.

Ralph Lauren posted fourth quarter net revenue of 1.9 billion dollars. The fashion retailers' quarterly earnings per diluted share were 1.41 dollars, in line with the prior year excluding foreign currency impacts. Its shares tumbled 3.53 percent around midday. Endite