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FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - In terms of yesterday's US session, it was a day of two halves as a weaker-than-expected Empire Manufacturing print (-7.8 vs. 0.0 expected) and another 3% drop in Apple set the scene for a weak open. From there, the S&P500 managed a 0.6% intraday rally to close with a gain of 0.11%, taking the benchmark to a new post-financial crisis high of 1472.

According to Macro Strategy Analysts J. Reid and C. Tan at Deutsche Bank, "Driving the rally was a better than expected retail sales number (+0.5% vs. +0.2% expected), which as our US economists point out, came amidst a recent spate of weaker consumer sentiment indicators including the University of Michigan (72.9 Dec vs. 82.6 Oct) and Conference board surveys (65.1 Dec vs. 73.1 Oct)."

Indeed retail stocks (+0.75%) outperformed on the day led by JC Penney (+3.4%), Tiffany's (+3.3%) and Macy's (+2.2%) - helping to offset another weak day for telecoms (-0.9%) and technology stocks (-0.6%). While on the topic of technology, Apple had its second consecutive day of +3% losses. Its stock price closed below $500/share for the first time since February 10th 2012 and is now about 31% below the all-time peak of $702 reached in mid-September 2012.

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