S&P 500; US Indexes Fundamental Daily Forecast – Boosted by Strong Bank Earnings, Retail Sales Report

All three major U.S. stock indexes reached record highs on Friday, buoyed by aggressive bets on a strong corporate earnings season.

At the mid-session, the Dow is trading 25774.86, up 200.13 or +0.78%, the S&P 500 Index is at 2780.40, up 12.84 or +0.46% and the NASDAQ Composite is at 7248.16, up 36.38 or +0.50%.

The Dow was driven higher by shares of J.P. Morgan Chase which rose 0.9 percent. The S&P 500 Index was boosted by a rise in the consumer discretionary sector. The NASDAQ was also up, helped by a 1.8 percent surge in Amazon shares.

Bank earnings were at the forefront today as traders reacted to better-than-expected quarterly earnings from J.P. Morgan Chase, BlackRock and Wells Fargo.

Traders showed little reaction to the U.S. consumer inflation report, but really liked the upbeat retail sales report.

The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index, excluding the volatile food and energy components, rose 0.3 percent last month as prices for new and used cars and trucks and motor vehicle insurance increased.

Economists had forecast core CPI rising 0.2 percent month-on-month and holding steady at 1.7 percent on an annual basis.

The Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.4 percent last month. It revised November data to show a gain of 0.9 percent instead of the previously reported 0.8 percent increase. Retail sales rose 5.4 percent from a year earlier.

Stocks are expected to finish the week strong ahead of a slew of earnings reports next week. Investors are anticipating a bullish earnings season.

S&P 500 profits are expected to have risen 11.2 percent in the fourth quarter of last year. All 11 S&P 500 sectors, meanwhile, are expected to post increases in both earnings and revenue, according to FactSet. This would be the first time since 2011 that all the sectors in the S&P 500 posted sales and profit growth for the same quarter.