U.S. stocks erased early losses to climb and close mostly higher, with the broad S&P 500 extending its winning streak to four days as investors feel increasingly bullish after data showed consumers are still hanging in despite headwinds.

April retail sales edged up 0.1%, better than estimates for unchanged and on the heels of March’s revised 1.7% jump, which was the biggest monthly surge since early 2023. Retail sales data are seen as a gauge of how consumers are dealing with tariff fears and economic uncertainty.

April retail sales were led by restaurant spending, “a sign that consumers are willing to allocate toward discretionary spending,” said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist for LPL Financial.

Ted Rossman, Bankrate senior industry analyst, said “as we’ve said many times over the past several years, don’t underestimate the strength of the consumer. The resilience of consumer spending continues to move the economy forward, despite a number of worries concerning tariffs, inflation and high interest rates.”

The blue-chip Dow rose 0.65%, or 271.69 points, to 42,322.75; the S&P 500 added 0.41%, or 24.35 points, to 5,916.93; and tech-heavy Nasdaq dipped 0.18%, or 34.49 points, to 19,112.32.

Stocks started the week strong after China and the U.S. reached a trade deal over the weekend that put a 90-day hold on reciprocal tariffs. That temporarily cut the 145% levy on Chinese goods to 30% and the tax on U.S. goods to 10% from 125% and was a better deal than analyst were expecting. The S&P 500 managed to claw back all its losses for the year and turn positive.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.445%, and oil prices dipped more than 2% after President Donald Trump said a deal with Iran on nuclear weapons was pending. A deal could lead to relaxed crude sanctions on the middle eastern country.

Big tariff effects not present yet

Major tariff effects still aren’t showing up in April data, economists said.

Not only did the retail sales report show consumers continuing to spend, albeit at a slower pace, April’s producer price, or PPI, index unexpectedly fell 0.5% in April from the prior month, led by a 0.7% decline in services and the largest drop on record for that measure. PPI measures wholesale inflation, or prices businesses pay for their goods and services. Economists polled by Dow Jones had anticipated April PPI grew by 0.3% from the prior month.

Jamie Cox, managing partner for Harris Financial Group, said “if you are in the stagflation camp, these data aren’t confirming your thesis. While growth is slowing, disinflation remains intact.”

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell noted Thursday morning in prepared remarks at a conference how more frequent and potentially more persistent supply shocks affecting the economy could mean higher longer-term rates.

Tariff uncertainy still looms

Despite stocks’ upward move, economists warn that tariff uncertainty remains.

“The 30% tariff rate that remains in place with imports from China is still a serious disruption to anyone involved in the goods trade and a major escalation relative to April 1 levels,” said Tim Quinlan, economist at Wells Fargo.

It also remains to be seen whether the U.S. and China can ratchet those tariffs lower or if more trade deals come to fruition, they said.

Retail giant Walmart on Thursday reported earnings in the first three months of the year that topped analysts’ forecasts, showing it could weather the tariff storm. It also held onto its full-year outlook.

However, Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said consumers could start to see higher prices as soon as later this month as a result of tariffs. 

Corporate news

• Facebook parent Meta shares slipped more than 2% in the afternoon after the WSJ said the company’s delaying a flagship artificial intelligence model, sparking concerns about Meta’s AI push.
• Cisco Systems’ third-quarter results topped analysts’ estimates. Cisco shares gained almost 5%.
• Foot Locker is close to a deal to be bought by Dick’s Sporting Goods for about $24 a share, or $2.3 billion, the WSJ also reported. Foot Locker stock surged 85.7% and Dick’s dropped 14.58%.
• Artificial intelligence infrastructure company CoreWeave topped sales estimates in the first three months of the year but still lost money. Shares lost 2.5%.
• Deere’s quarterly results topped analysts’ forecasts but the equipment maker widened its profit outlook range to account for “heightened uncertainty.” Deere shares rose 3.78%.
• Apple shares eased fractionally after Trump said he told Apple he was unhappy about the iPhone maker’s decision to build factories in India.
• Alibaba shares fell 7.5% after the Chinese company posted results in its final three months of its fiscal year that missed analysts’ forecasts.
• UnitedHealth Group is under a Department of Justice criminal probe for possible criminal Medicare fraud related to its Medicare Advantage business, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company said it had not been informed of a criminal probe by federal prosecutors, Reuters said. UnitedHealth’s stock tumbled almost 11%.

Cryptocurrency

Crypto exchange Coinbase said in a regulatory filing cyber criminals bribed overseas staff to steal customer data and trick customers into sending them funds. The incident may cost Coinbase up to $400 million to fix, the company estimated.

“Cyber criminals bribed and recruited a group of rogue overseas support agents to steal Coinbase customer data to facilitate social engineering attacks,” the company said in a blog post. “These insiders abused their access to customer support systems to steal the account data for a small subset of customers. No passwords, private keys, or funds were exposed and Coinbase Prime accounts are untouched. We will reimburse customers who were tricked into sending funds to the attacker.”

Coinbase shares fell 7.2%.

Bitcoin was last down 0.45% to $103,101.00.