STOCKS RALLY: Here's What You Need To Know

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 15,458.0, +38.3, +0.2%
• S&P 500: 1,695.0, +5.4, +0.4%
• NASDAQ: 3,686.6, +16.5, +0.4%

And now, the top stories:

• Retail sales climbed by just 0.2% month-over-month in July. This was a bit lower than the 0.3% gain expected by economists. Excluding autos and gas, sales climbed 0.4%, which was right in line with expectations. "For real consumer spending, the detail imply about a 1.7% annual rate of growth through the first month of the quarter—about the same pace as in Q2," said UBS's Drew Matus. "That said, the pattern in retail control sales (0.1%, 0.2%, 0.5% in the past three months) suggests the possibility of acceleration as the quarter goes on."
• In a somewhat unexpected move, activist investor Bill Ackman withdrew from the board of JC Penney. Ackman took a stake in the department store chain with the intention of turning around its sales. He recruited Ron Johnson, the retail guru behind the Apple stores. However, sales collapsed as Johnson rolled out his revamped sales strategy. Ackman and the board had been butting heads ever since.
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