Major Averages Moving Sharply Higher In Early Trading

(RTTNews) - Stocks have moved sharply higher in early trading on Thursday after ending the previous session firmly in negative territory. The major averages have all shown upward moves, nearly offsetting yesterday's steep losses.

The rebound on Wall Street comes following the release of a Commerce Department report showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. retail sales in the month of November.

The report said retail sales climbed by 0.7 percent in November compared to economist estimates for an increase of about 0.4 percent.

The better than expected data has generated optimism about the holiday shopping season, which is the most important time of the year for retailers.

Retail stocks are turning in a strong performance following the release of the report, with the Dow Jones Retail Index surging up by 2.1 percent. Urban Outfitters (URBN) is posting a standout gain after the apparel retailer provided upbeat sales guidance.

Significant strength is also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 2.5 percent gain being posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index. Ciena (CIEN) is leading the sector higher despite reporting an unexpected fourth quarter loss.

Oil service, natural gas, internet, and computer hardware stocks are also seeing early strength, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

In recent trading, the major averages have seen some further upside, reaching new highs for the young session. The Dow is up 215.70 points or 1.2 percent at 17,748.85, the Nasdaq is up 70.50 points or 1.5 percent at 4,754.53 and the S&P 500 is up 27.62 points or 1.4 percent at 2,053.76.