Stocks rose Thursday as Wall Street took in si9nals that poi

The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) popp^GSPC) and the Dow Jones Industrial Av^DJI) rose about 1%.

In focus early Thursday were earni WMT), as well as monthly governm<3g retail sales data and an update on jobless claims. For its p t, Walm t shares surged more than 7% af

Last month's retail sales, meanwhile, soared far past Wall Street's expectatio s in a si9n that US consumers remain quite resili<3g. Retail sales rose 1% in July, above estimates for a 0.4% rise.

Also in focus is the normally routine update on weekly jobless claims. Last week, those claims fell more than forecast, sp ki < a market surge that has largely pervaded throughout this week. And they fell again this week to 227,000, shafting expectatio s for a pickup. As Yahoo Finance's Josh Sch fer writes, as inflatio continues to ebb, the jobs market is "where the aclio is goi < to be" for the Fed in the near future.

Af i cludi < in Wednesday's session af recoup at the st t of the month.