While you were sleeping: UPDATED Retail therapy sends Wall St to record highs

Wall Street rallied, sending the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to record intraday and closing highs, on better-than-anticipated earnings from retailers including Best Buy and Sears.

The Dow industrials closed in on its record, which it set on March 1.

Shares of Best Buy soared 21% to a record high after the electronics retailer posted a surprise gain in quarterly comparable sales.

"We expect Best Buy to continue to perform at a high level across multiple categories, with appliances likely to be one of the bright spots given market dynamics," Moody's retail analyst Charlie O'Shea wrote in a note, according to Reuters.

Sears jumped 12.3% after reporting its first quarterly profit in almost two years.

Better-than-expected results also lifted shares of PVH, the maker of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger clothing. The stock traded 5% higher.

Dow adds 70 points
Wall Street moved higher. At the close of trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 70.53 points, or 0.3%, to 21,082.95. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.7% to 6205.26 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was 0.4% higher at 2415.07, its 19th record close this year.

The S&P 500 climbed to an intraday record of 2417.72 while the Nasdaq also touched a record 6217.34.

The Dow advanced as gains in shares of UnitedHealth and those of Microsoft, up 1.8% and 1.5% higher respectively, outweighed slides in shares of Chevron and those of DuPont, each down 1.3%.

Minutes from the Federal Reserve's May meeting, released on Wednesday, kept alive bets that policy makers will raise interest rates next month.

"While markets may be thinking June is a done deal, some on the Fed appear to be less certain," Michael Hewson, a market analyst at CMC Markets in London, wrote in a note, Bloomberg reported.

Claims rise less than expected
Meanwhile, a Labour Department report showed that initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 1000 to a seasonally adjusted 234,000 for the week ended May 20. The increase was less than economists had predicted.

Oil prices dropped below $US50 a barrel after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other non-OPEC members agreed to prolong a reduction in oil supplies by nine months, as had been widely expected. Still, some had hoped for more.

"Members participating in the output deal failing to agree on deeper cuts have given a bearish signal to the market as an extension alone may not rebalance the market fast enough," Abhishek Kumar, senior energy analyst at Interfax Energy's Global Gas Analytics in London, told Reuters.

West Texas Intermediate for July delivery dropped $US2.46, or 4.8%, to settle at $US48.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index was less than 0.1% lower from the previous close. France's CAC40 Index slipped 0.1%, Germany's DAX Index fell 0.2% and the UK's FTSE 100 Index eked out a 0.04% gain.

(BusinessDesk)