US equity markets climbed, buoyed by a strong October retail sales report and better-than-expected third-quarter results from big box retailers Home Depot and Walmart - Dow added +55-points or +0.15% . The broader S&P500 rose +0.39%, with Consumer Discretionary (up +1.38%) and Information Technology (+1.07%) both gaining over >1%. Tesla Inc rebounded +4.08%. It was a strong session for electric vehicle (EV) companies more broadly, with EV start-up Lucid Group Inc soaring +23.71% after executives told investors that reservations for its first vehicles are up and 2022 production plans are still on track. That pushed its market cap to about US$89B, past that of Ford Motor Co (down -0.35%) but still far below Tesla’s, which hit $1 trillion this year. Elsewhere, Rivian Automotive Inc jumped +15.16% to see its market capitalisation climb above Volkswagen AG (+0.54%). Rivian’s value has doubled to US$153B since floating only last Wednesday (10 November).The Nasdaq gained +0.76%, with Qualcomm Inc jumping +7.89% after the wireless technology company issued bullish forecasts at an investor’s conference in New York and said that its growth doesn’t rely on a relationship with any single customer, such as its modem chip sales to Apple Inc (+0.67%). Qualcomm currently supplies wireless chips for Apple’s devices but said it expects to provide just 20% of the modem chips needed for the 2023 iPhone. “This company can no longer be defined by a single market and a single end-customer,” Qualcomm Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Cristiano Amon observed. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 edged +0.17% higher.