And excluding sales of cars and gas, retail sales were up 0.7%. But the headline event was a 0.6% gain in June retail sales, shattering estimates for a benign 0.1% increase. Stocks opened higher thanks to upbeat Chinese economic data and better-than-expected retail sales and industrial production data, but lost altitude right after the Dow and S&P 500 hit new record highs. The terrorist attack on Bastille Day revellers in Nice, France eclipsed upbeat data on Chinese GDP, industrial production and retail sales and left European equities lower this morning with France's CAC-40 leading the decliners. Among precious-metal funds, the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF was down 1.22% to 29.84 while SPDR Gold Shares were down 0.28% to $126.99.

Source: Mid-Day July 15, 2016 17:26 UTC