Jan. 11 (UPI) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 erased some of their 2018 losses after a fifth consecutive day posting gains Thursday.
The Dow was up 122.80 points, or 0.51 percent, at the end of trading Thursday, while the S&P rose 11.68 points or 0.45 percent. The five-day winning streak brought the Dow to 24,001.92 and the S&P to 2,596.64, pushing them both out of market correction territory as they erased a 10 percent decline from their most recent peak.
In all, the Dow has bounced back 10.1 percent and the S&P has risen 10.4 percent from Dec. 24 lows.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.42 percent, but remained in a bear market — typically defined as 20 percent below a bull market peak. Overall the index has risen 13 percent from Christmas Eve, but would need to rise another 7.7 points to exit the bear market.
While the markets experienced mild gains on Thursday, poor holiday sales reports form Macy’s and a revenue guidance cut from American Airlines kept them from a larger increase.
Macy’s experienced its worst day ever with shares falling more than 18 percent after the company reported its same-store sales grew by 1.1 percent during the holiday shopping season in November and December.
Shares of Kohl’s also fell 4.8 percent and Nordstrom dropped 4 percent, dragging down the retail sector as a whole.
American Airlines shares also fell more than 4 percent after it lowered its revenue growth forecast for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2018.
JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines also fell Thursday.
The government shutdown, which entered its 20th day, also loomed over the markets.
President Donald Trump announced on Twitter Thursday he would skip the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, while continuing efforts to secure funding for a barrier at the U.S.-Mexico border, which has been the central issue of the shutdown.
