(MENAFN- AFP) Wall Street stocks gained in early trade Tuesday, following upbeat data on "Cyber Monday," seen by many as the yearly highpoint for online shopping.
About 35 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17,823.42, up 46.62 points (0.26 percent).
The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 6.48 (0.32 percent) to 2,059.92, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 15.68 (0.33 percent) to 4,743.03.
US online sales Monday came in at $2.65 billion, up 16 percent from 2013, according to the Adobe 2014 Digital Index. The figures for Monday's big day of online discounts helped offset disappointing data on the "Black Friday" kickoff of the holiday shopping season.
Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare said the preliminary data on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday "probably need to be taken with a grain of salt considering how extended the holiday shopping season has gotten with the never-ending promotional activity online."
Most international markets rose, with Shanghai soaring 3.1 percent on speculation China could implement additional stimulus.
Biotech company Biogen shot up 6.7 percent after it reported promising early clinical results for an Alzheimer's drug. Fellow biotech stocks also rose: Amgen (+1.4 percent), Celgene (+2.4 percent) and Gilead Sciences (+0.9 percent).
The first holiday sales data also boosted leading package shippers UPS (+1.1 percent) and FedEx (+1.7 percent).
Chipmakers Cypress Semiconductor and Spansion announced plans to merge Monday in a $4 billion deal. Cypress gained 17.1 percent, while Spansion jumped 23.8 percent.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.28 percent from 2.22 percent, while the 30-year increased to 3.00 percent from 2.95 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
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