North American stocks rose at the start of trading on Tuesday, boosted by a better-than-expected reading on U.S. retail sales in November.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 47 points or 0.4 per cent, to 11,475. The broader S&P 500 rose 3 points or 0.3 per cent, to 1244. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index rose 7 points or less than 0.1 per cent, to 13,303.
U.S. retail sales rose 0.8 per cent in November, and October's sales were revised higher, to 1.7 per cent from 1.2 per cent -- lifting hopes that consumer spending is coming around. However, Best Buy slid 14 per cent after the electronics retailer reported disappointing quarterly earnings.
In other moves, Cisco Systems Inc. rose 1.1 per cent and AT&T Inc. rose 1 per cent. Alcoa Inc. fell 0.7 per cent and JPMorgan Chase & Co. fell 0.7 per cent.
Among Canadian stocks, Manulife Financial Corp. fell 1.6 per cent and Royal Bank of Canada fell 0.3 per cent after the two financial giants were hit on Monday with credit rating downgrades by both Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service.
Follow Market Blog on Twitter: @marketblog