TRADING DAY Making sense of the forces driving global markets By Jamie McGeever, Markets Columnist Another batch of upbeat U.S. economic data including solid retail sales boosted risk appetite on Thursday,

PepsiCo jumped 7.5% after delivering revenue and profit that topped Wall Street’s expectations. The drink and snack giant also stood by its financial forecasts given in April, which projected lower full-year profit than previous forecasts due to increased costs from tariffs and a pullback in consumer spending.

This past April, when President Donald Trump started flirting with the notion of firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, stocks and the dollar tumbled because investors worried that even talking about such a move crossed a red line.

A healthy crop of earnings helped European stocks bust out of a four-day losing streak on Thursday, Wall Street was watching Netflix and the dollar bounced after U.S. President Donald Trump quashed talk he was about to fire Fed head Jerome Powell.

Wall Street is hanging near its records on Thursday following some better-than-expected updates on the economy and a mixed set of profit reports from big U.S. companies. The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in early trading and just a bit below its all-time high set a week before.

Many on Wall Street have privately worried that political pressure will undermine the Federal Reserve’s credibility.

The Nasdaq Composite rose to a record high on Thursday, with Wall Street's other major indexes also advancing, as strong economic data and positive earnings reports cheered investors.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday said the agency’s renovation of its office complex in Washington complies with plans approved by a local commission, disputing a White House suggestion that they had violated the law by deviating from those plans.

Wall Street's main indexes rose slightly, buoyed by strong results from PepsiCo and positive economic data. Retail sales exceeded expectations and job growth remained steady. Despite potential tariff impacts,

President Donald Trump sent the U.S. stock market on a jagged round trip Wednesday after saying he had “talked about the concept of firing” the head of the Federal Reserve. Such a move could help Wall Street get the lower interest rates it loves but would also risk a weakened Fed unable

U.S. stock indexes are ticking higher on Wednesday following a better-than-expected update on inflation across the country.