In different news, retail metrics indicated that same-sales store sales dropped 2.3% in August, beating analysts’ expectations of a drop of 3.4%. The sector was driven by the performance of discount retailers as consumers looked for bargains for back-to-school shopping and their essentials. The Retail HOLDRs (RTH) was up 0.2% in morning trading.
Overall, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%, while the S&P 500 jumped 0.4% and the Nasdaq gained 0.6% in morning trading.
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Kevin Grewal contributed to this article.