US: Stocks rise ahead of inflation, retail sales data

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks advanced early Monday, keeping positive momentum from last week's strong jobs report ahead of key data releases on US inflation and retail sales.

About 25 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 25,406.97, up 0.3 per cent.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.2 per cent at 2,792.63, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.3 per cent to 7,585.93.

Investor sentiment remained upbeat at the start of the week after Friday's employment report showed stronger-than-expected US job growth in February.

The report also showed moderating wage growth, mitigating fears of runaway inflation that could prompt the Federal Reserve to hasten its pace of interest rate hikes.

Investors were also cheered by last week's surprise news of a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, expected to take place by the end of May.

Shares of Broadcom jumped 3.2 per cent after a Wall Street Journal report that Intel is considering bidding for the chip company, which has undertaken a hostile campaign to buy Qualcomm. Intel fell 2.3 per cent.

Goldman Sachs gained 1.1 per cent after announcing that co-president Harvey Schwartz would retire, leaving David Solomon the sole president and next in line to become the investment bank's next chief executive.

AFP