While blue-chips declined, most US stocks closed marginally higher Wednesday, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to the highest level since Oct 2007 as investors compared slowing retail sales with slightly upbeat earnings report.
Before markets opened, data released by the Census Bureau showed US retail sales rose at a seasonally adjusted pace of 0.1 percent in January, matching the median forecasts of economists but well short of a 0.5 percent rise in the previous month. The data indicated consumer spending has started to get affected following an increase in payroll tax at the beginning of the year.
In Washington, President Barack Obama called for raising the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour from the current $7.25 rate in the State of the Union speech Tuesday evening. The president also pledged to increase trade with Europe and urged lawmakers to come together to end the “manufactured” crisis over the federal deficit. The president reiterated his demand that Republicans accept raising tax revenue along with spending cuts as part of his goal of $1.5 trillion in additional deficit reduction over a decade. A balance could be achieved by getting rid of deductions and tax loopholes for the well-off and the well-connected, he said.
