US stocks open higher on retail sales report

New York - Wall Street stocks rose modestly on Thursday after a report showing solid US retail sales in July spurred speculation that the Federal Reserve could soon hike interest rates.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17 409.39, up 6.88 points.

The broad-based S&P 500 edged up 0.06% to 2 087.25, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained  0.35% to 5 062.06.

Overall US retail sales rose 0.6% in July from June to $446.5bn, a slightly bigger increase than the 0.5% gain projected by analysts, according to the Commerce Department.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the report was "significantly stronger than expected" and that it "bolsters the case for a September rate hike, at the margin."