NEW YORK, July 18, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Wall Street stocks rose to fresh record highs Thursday as markets focused on solid US retail sales data and corporate earnings rather than lingering worries about President Donald Trump's tariffs.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.5 percent to 6,297.36, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.7 percent to 20,884.27, its fourth straight closing record.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.5 percent to 44,484.49.

Analysts expect the bullish sentiment in the markets to continue until there is a reason for it to stop.

Investors are taking a wait-and-see approach to Trump's August 1 tariff deadline and not overthinking the president's denial that he plans to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

"Right now, as long as the markets don't have a reason to sell off, they're going to go up," said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers. "The news on the economy this week has been good enough."

Investors were wary heading into second-quarter earnings season, but "the data so far and the earnings are coming in better than expected," said Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital Management.

US retail sales climbed 0.6 percent in June to $720.1 billion, reversing the 0.9 percent decline in May and easily topping analyst expectations.

But with tariffs and inflation a growing worry, the strong retail sales trend appears likely to moderate, said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData.

"However, it is still unlikely that the consumer will fall into a full-blown recession -- especially so if interest rates come down," Saunders said.

Among individual companies, United Airlines climbed 3.1 percent as it offered an upbeat outlook on travel demand in the second half of 2025 despite reporting a drop in second-quarter profits.

PepsiCo was another outperformer, winning 7.5 percent as analysts cited its revenue growth after three straight quarters of lower sales.