Stock Market Today: Wall Street Rallies Around Reassuring Retail Data
Airlines, semiconductors among several pockets of relative strength in an overall strong Tuesday session for the broader indexes.


The stock market enjoyed a broad rebound Tuesday as fresh economic data suggested the U.S. consumer is still shopping strong.
The U.S. Census Bureau said today that April retail sales improved by 0.9% over March. Though that was slightly less than the 1.0% expected, there was a show of strength in the significant upward revision to March's numbers, to 1.4% growth from 0.5% originally.
"To the extent that markets are worried about a growth slowdown, this is good news, but it is also a further catalyst for the Fed to raise rates even higher to get inflation under control," says Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for registered investment advisor Independent Advisor Alliance.
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Be a smarter, better informed investor.

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
While Zaccarelli joins other names in believing a recession is unlikely in 2022, "the Fed is going to need to raise interest rates to a point where they are likely to cause a recession in 2023 or 2024, and that gives us cause for concern," he says.
Despite the promising retail data, success in retail stocks wasn't a gimme.
Walmart (WMT, -11.4%) plunged after delivering a mixed quarterly report. Revenues improved 2.4% year-over-year to $141.6 billion to easily top expectations, and Walmart lifted its full-year sales outlook. However, that windfall is coming from cost-conscious consumers flocking to its grocery aisle, which has lower margins than its other offerings. This, as well as supply-chain problems and other headwinds, caused Walmart to report profits of $1.30 per share that were well short of estimates, and to lower its income forecast for 2022.
Home Depot (HD, +1.7%) fared better, however, after delivering record fiscal first-quarter sales and upgrading its full-year outlook.
"Walmart's report this week basically confirmed all the negative scenarios that you would expect given inflationary pressures and rising interest rates," says David Keller, chief market strategist at StockCharts.com. But he added that "Home Depot's report had a much more encouraging tone as consumers fueled a strong earnings win for the company."
Other pockets of strength Tuesday included airline stocks such as American Airlines (AAL, +7.7%) and Delta Air Lines (DAL, +6.7%), which were boosted by United Airlines' (UAL, +7.9%) higher second-quarter revenue outlook. Semiconductor stocks including Micron Technology (MU, +5.7%) and Qualcomm (QCOM, +4.3%) also rallied around Piper Sandler's upgrade of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, +8.7%).
The Nasdaq Composite was tops among the major indexes Tuesday, up 2.8% to 11,984. The S&P 500 delivered a 2.0% gain to 4,088, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average improved 1.3% to 32,654.
Other news in the stock market today:
- The small-cap Russell 2000 surged 3.2% to 1,840.
- U.S. crude oil futures slumped 1.6% to $112.40 per barrel.
- A retreat in the U.S. dollar helped gold futures tick 0.3% higher to $1,818.90 per ounce.
- Bitcoin improved by 1.7% to $30,058.48. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m.)
- Twitter (TWTR, +2.5%) made some gains despite a potential deal with Tesla (TSLA, +5.1%) CEO Elon Musk looking increasingly unlikely. Musk insisted today that he would back out of his $44 billion bid to buy the social platform unless Twitter proved that fewer than 5% of its users are bots. He tweeted that "20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher" without providing proof. Numerous analysts have now said they believe Musk's sudden interest in Twitter's bot numbers is either an attempt to escape his deal, or lower the $54.20-per-share price tag.
Buffett's Latest Buys Are In!
A number of other stocks were driven higher Tuesday by their newfound inclusion into a prestigious order: the equity portfolio of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.
Berkshire filed its quarterly Form 13F with the SEC yesterday afternoon, revealing that after more than a year of heavy selling, Warren Buffett was finally eager to buy. Paramount Global (PARA, +15.4%) and Celanese (CE, +7.5%) were just two of the eight new positions Berkshire entered during the first quarter, and among the top beneficiaries of earning Buffett's seal of approval.
We recently mentioned that inflation has been a major driver of many of Buffett's purchases of the past few months, but it's not the only story.
Read on as we explore each and every one of Buffett's 22 moves from the first quarter of 2022, including what likely drew the Oracle of Omaha (or his lieutenants) to the position.
Kyle Woodley was long AMD as of this writing.
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more. Delivered daily. Enter your email in the box and click Sign Me Up.
Kyle Woodley is the Editor-in-Chief of WealthUp, a site dedicated to improving the personal finances and financial literacy of people of all ages. He also writes the weekly The Weekend Tea newsletter, which covers both news and analysis about spending, saving, investing, the economy and more.
Kyle was previously the Senior Investing Editor for Kiplinger.com, and the Managing Editor for InvestorPlace.com before that. His work has appeared in several outlets, including Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, Barchart, The Globe & Mail and the Nasdaq. He also has appeared as a guest on Fox Business Network and Money Radio, among other shows and podcasts, and he has been quoted in several outlets, including MarketWatch, Vice and Univision. He is a proud graduate of The Ohio State University, where he earned a BA in journalism.
You can check out his thoughts on the markets (and more) at @KyleWoodley.
-
Stocks Rise to End a Volatile Week: Stock Market Today
The market's fear index reached and retreated from a six-month intraday peak on Friday as stocks closed the week well.
-
Kiplinger News Quiz, Oct 17 — Longest Government Shutdown?
Quiz We covered stories about the shutdown, Medicare and vehicle recalls this week, but why? Test yourself on the latest financial and business news.
-
Banks Are Sounding the Alarm About Stablecoins
The Kiplinger Letter The banking industry says stablecoins could have a negative impact on lending.
-
Dow Adds 587 Points as Stocks Bounce: Stock Market Today
The main indexes rebounded sharply Monday after President Trump took a calmer stance toward China.
-
Dow Dives 878 Points on Trump's China Warning: Stock Market Today
The main indexes erased early gains after President Trump said China is becoming "hostile" and threatened to cancel a meeting with President Xi.
-
Stocks Retreat as Shutdown Continues: Stock Market Today
While the main indexes closed lower today, Delta and PepsiCo gained ground on encouraging earnings reports.
-
Rally Fades on Mixed AI Revolution News: Stock Market Today
All three main U.S. equity indexes opened higher but closed lower as a seven-session winning streak for the S&P 500 came to an end.
-
S&P, Nasdaq Hit New Highs: Stock Market Today
A late-day rally wasn't enough to lift the Dow into the green as its six-session winning streak came to an end.
-
AMD Stock Surges on OpenAI Deal
Advanced Micro Devices could see tens of billions of dollars in new revenue from the ChatGPT maker as the AI infrastructure buildout accelerates.
-
Stock Market Winners and Losers of the 'Big, Beautiful' Bill
Defense, manufacturing and tech should prosper, while health care and green energy stocks face hurdles.