Earlier in the day, disappointing retail, foreclosure, and jobless claims data took away some of the excitement that followed an unexpected increase in GDP in France and Germany and the Fed's most recent release. But observers were again impressed by the market's staying power.
"No matter what's thrown at this market, it continues to stay strong: You have negative news, you go sideways, you have positive news, the market goes up," says Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research.
"It all says the market is predicting we had a major bottom in the economy recently, and now the market is forward-looking, and there are negatives out there, sure, but overall we think things look much, much better," says Detrick. Click below to hear more from Detrick on the market and economy
As for retail sales , the Department of Commerce reported an 0.1% drop in July, while analysts had expected an increase of 0.8%. Factoring out autos, sales fell by 0.6%, vs. expectations for an 0.1% increase.
"The data are going to be uneven, and that's what we're seeing here," says Jeffrey Kleintop, chief market strategist for LPL Financial. "We'll look back at July and see it as a downward dip in what was a pretty solid rebound in a lot of the economic data."
"When you look at the charts and what the market has done, I really think the market is telling us the consumer will slowly come back," agrees Schaeffer's Detrick. "But it is getting to make-or-break time, they need to start doing it in the next two to three months here."
A weekly report on unemployment also came in worse than projected.
The Labor Department said the number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly to a seasonally adjusted 558,000, from 554,000 the previous week. Analysts were expecting new claims to drop to 545,000.
Despite the increase, initial claims remain below their peak levels above 600,000 where they have been for most of this year.
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