Stock Futures Climb on Rebound in Retail Sales

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stock futures were pointing to a higher Wall Street open Tuesday after a stronger-than-expected rebound in U.S. retail sales and as investors experienced a degree of relief after looking at the latest eurozone gross domestic product figures.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were rising 42 points, or 48.57 points above fair value, at 13,179. Futures for the S&P 500 were up 4.1 points, or 5.64 points above fair value, at 1407. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 were up 11.75 points, or 13.67 points above fair value, at 2740.

The Commerce Department reported that retail sales rebounded in July, rising a better-than-expected 0.8% after falling by a downwardly revised 0.7% in June. Economists surveyed by Reuters forecast that retail sales rebounded by 0.3% in July. Excluding automobile sales, retail sales rose 0.8% in July after being down 0.8% in June.

The Labor Department said Tuesday the Producer Price Index rose 0.3% in July after rising 0.1% in June. The PPI was predicted to have risen 0.2%. Excluding the food and energy components, the PPI was up 0.4% in July after being up 0.2% in June.

"While both were firmer than expected, it's retail sales that takes center stage with widespread gains only partially offset by further downward revisions in the prior month," said David Ader, a strategist at CRT Capital Group.

The Commerce Department releases its June business inventories report at 10 a.m. EDT.

September crude oil futures were up 39 cents at $93.12 a barrel and December gold futures were up $2 at $1,614.60 an ounce.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury was slipping 1/32, raising the yield to 1.67%. The greenback was down 0.14%, according to the dollar index.

The FTSE in London was up 0.50% and the DAX in Germany was up 0.65% after data showed that Germany's economy grew by 0.3% in the second quarter, better than the 0.2% rise economists had expected. France's economy didn't grow in the second quarter, but that was still better than the expected 0.1% contraction.

In aggregate, eurozone gross domestic product shrank by 0.2% in the second quarter, in line with the consensus forecast.

The Hong Kong Hang Seng index settled ahead by 1.05% and the Nikkei in Japan closed up 0.50%.

U.S. stocks finished mixed Monday as disappointing data on Japan's economic growth triggered some mild profit-taking after five weeks of gains. The S&P 500 snapped a six-day winning streak but the Nasdaq managed to eke out a gain amid low overall volumes.

In corporate news, Home Depot (HD) reported a 13% increase in second-quarter net income and raised its full-year earnings outlook.

Groupon (GRPN), the daily deals site, beat analysts' quarterly estimates on the bottom line but revenue came in light.

Groupon posted second-quarter non-GAAP earnings Monday of $53.8 million, or 8 cents a share, on revenue of $568.3 million. Analysts were calling for a profit of 3 cents a share in the quarter on revenue of $573.1 million.

Apple's (AAPL) highly anticipated iPhone 5 will be available for pre-order on Sept. 12, according to an iMore report.

Google (GOOG) is acquiring the Frommer's travel-guide business from John Wiley & Sons (JWB) for a reported $25 million.

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-- Written by Andrea Tse in New York.



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