Markets Right Now: Stocks open higher on Wall Street

NEW YORK – The Latest on developments in financial markets (all times local):

9:35 a.m.

Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street as traders were encouraged by talk of more deals and some better news on retail earnings.

Materials and energy companies rose more than the rest of the market early Thursday.

Monsanto jumped 9 per cent on reports that Bayer is in talks to buy it. Oil companies rose along with the price of crude.

Jack in the Box soared 14 per cent after reporting results that were better than analysts were expecting.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 64 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 17,774. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added seven points, or 0.3 per cent, to 2,071. The Nasdaq composite index rose 12 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 4,772.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.76 per cent.

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9:40 a.m.

European stock markets are posting losses as traders take their cue from a disappointing session on Wall Street that had its roots in concerns over the state of retail spending in the U.S.

Those worries appear to have been due to an outlook warning from Macy’s and the state of Disney’s traditional cable business. Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, says investors appear to be “waking up to the fact that U.S. consumer spending may not be as resilient as first thought.”

Those concerns dragged into the European trading session Thursday, with Germany’s DAX down 0.4 per cent at 9,940 and the CAC-40 in France 0.3 per cent lower at 4,305.

The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares is 0.6 per cent lower at 6,127 ahead of the Bank of England’s latest economic forecasts which are to accompany its widely expected decision to keep its main interest rate unchanged at the record low of 0.5 per cent.