The U.S. stock market moved higher in early trading today as oil prices continued to stabilize. The S&P 500 gained 16 points to 1,911, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 115 points to 16,312 and the Nasdaq gained 45 points to 4,481. The S&P Retail ETF is also up 48 cents to $41.38.
In economic news, January producer prices increased by 0.1 percent after falling 0.2 percent in December. Prices for textile products and apparel for January fell 0.6 percent from a year earlier. Finished fabrics prices dropped 0.3 percent and processed yarns and threads fell 2.1 percent. Synthetic fibers slid 2 percent.
The Johnson Redbook weekly chain store sales continued to report weakness. Chain store sales last week grew 0.7 percent over a year earlier, stubbornly staying below 1 percent. Sales were down 2.5 percent month-over-month. Per Redbook, there is a risk of slowing in core growth, which excludes the gasoline and auto sector.
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Fossil Group Inc. jumped over 20 percent in early trading to $41.56 after the watch company beat earnings and revenues estimates for the fourth quarter. Fossil reported earnings of $1.46 per share, easily beating the FactSet estimate of $1.31. Sales came in at $993 million, which also topped the FactSet estimate of $928 million. However, sales decreased 8 percent for the overall year to $3.2 billion. The company faced currency headwinds and comparisons against the 2014 success of the Michael Kors watches. The company was slow to present a smartwatch option, but with the purchase of the company Misfit, it can now leverage that technology.
DSW Inc. agreed to buy online shoe retailers Ebuys for $62.5 million. DSW stock moved 2 percent higher to $24.22. DSW made the acquisition in order to boost its online presence. DSW said it would provide more details about the transaction during its earnings call on March 15.
Shopify, a cloud-based e-commerce platform delivered its fourth-quarter results and even though it was an adjusted net loss of $1.1 million, or 2 cents per share, shares rose. The total revenue was $70.2 million, a 99 percent increase over a year earlier. The gross merchandise volume was $2.8 billion, a 109 percent increase over the same period last year. For the full year 2016, Shopify expects revenues in the range of $320 million to $330 million, which is above consensus estimates. Shopify stock gained over 19 percent in early trading to $24.55.
European indices were trading higher across the board. The French CAC was up 2.3 percent, the German DAX rose 2.2 percent the U.K. FTSE gained 1.8 percent.
And Asia was a mixed bag. Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.4 percent and the Hong Kong Hang Seng dropped 1 percent, while the Chinese Shanghai Composite rose 1.1 percent.