The traders on Wall Street chose to jump and interpreted Monday's news positively.
One was that retail sales in the USA increased by 0.2 percent in February compared to January. It was significantly lower than some expectations of an increase of 0.6 percent.
But when car sales were excluded, the increase was 0.3 percent – and with that mathematical variable, the figures were in line with expectations.
The Dow Jones industrial index rose 0.9 percent, the broad S&P 500 index 0.7 percent, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index 0.3 percent.
Drag and Sinkers
The drag during Monday was, among others, the department store chain Walmart and the IT company IBM, with increases of 2.5 and 1.9 percent, respectively.
In the technology sector, it was more gloomy in some places, with a decline of 1.8 percent for the semiconductor manufacturer Nvidia.
Tesla continued its journey down to the basement with a fall of 4.8 percent. The electric car manufacturer has fallen 40.7 percent since the turn of the year.
Even on Friday, the indexes rose sharply. But the jump was taken after a very turbulent period where the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq composite index have fallen for four weeks in a row.
Several Ghosts
What has haunted has been President Donald Trump's confusing tariff announcements, a weakening labor market, warnings of domestic recession, weaker confidence in the economy among American households, rising inflation, and global security policy uncertainty.
On Monday, Wall Street also looked away from a gloomy global growth forecast from the economic cooperation organization OECD.
In the USA, a setback is expected primarily in 2026, when the country's growth is expected to reach 1.6 percent, the weakest figure since 2011, with the exception of the pandemic year 2020.
