A boost in consumer confidence, which hit a five-year high this month, helped push retail stocks higher on Wall Street today.
The S&P 500 Retailing Industry Group rose 0.6 percent, or 4.70 points, to 793.46, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, advanced 0.7 percent, or 106.29 points, to 15,409.39.
The gainers included Tiffany & Co., which rose 4 percent to $79.22 after topping first-quarter projections; Zale Corp., 3.5 percent to $6.89; Michael Kors Holdings Ltd., 3.2 percent to $61.98, and Amazon.com Inc., 2.1 percent to $267.29.
The Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index rose to 76.2 for May, up from 69 in April and 61.9 in March. Economists expected the index to post a much smaller rise to 70.8.
While Wall Street and London markets were closed for holidays on Monday, European Central Bank board member Joerg Asmussen said monetary stimulus would stay as long as necessary, which pushed European stocks up during trading on Tuesday. All of the major indexes gained ground.
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The FTSE MIB led the way, up 2.1 percent to 17,519.79, followed by the FTSE 100 in London, which climbed 1.6 percent to 6,762.01. Paris’ CAC 40 grew 1.4 percent to 4,050.56 and the DAX in Frankfurt expanded 1.2 percent to 8,480.87.
The Swiss franc traded at $1.07 against the dollar, the pound $1.15 and the euro $1.31.
Retail and luxury stocks were also on the rise, with the day’s strongest gainers including Mulberry, up 4.8 percent to 11.09 pounds; Compagnie Financière Richemont, 3 percent to 91.65 Swiss francs; Kering, 2.4 percent to 174.50 euros; and Ferragamo, 2.2 percent to 24.78 euros.