US stocks mixed after weak retail sales

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Major indices in the US stock market opened mixed Thursday after retail sales in March were lower than the market estimate.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 225 points, or 0.65%, to 34,790 at 9.45 a.m. EDT.

While the S&P 500 lost 5 points, or 0.13%, to 4,441. And the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 72 points, or 0.53%, to 13,570.

US retail sales came in at $665.7 billion in March, increasing 0.5% from the previous month’s revised figure of $662.4 billion. The market expectation was a 0.6% gain.

Twitter’s stock price was up 1.9% to $46.73 at 9.50 a.m. EDT after Elon Musk announced he proposed to buy the company for $54.20 per share, or around $43 billion.

The yield on 10-year US Treasury notes rose 2.6% to 2.760%. The dollar index added 0.6% to 100.46.

The VIX volatility index, known as the fear index, was down 1.6% to 21.47.

Precious metals were down, with gold losing 0.6% to $1,966 and silver shedding 1.4% to $25.37.

Crude oil prices fell more than 1%.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading at $107.58 a barrel, down 1.1%, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $102.92 per barrel -- a 1.3% decline.