Stocks jump on retail sales, merger talk

Wall Street charges higher after a very strong November retail sales report and news of more consolidation in airline sector.

December 13 2006: 9:38 AM EST

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks bounded higher Tuesday after a surprisingly strong retail sales report and more news of potential airline consolidation.

The Dow Jones industrial average Nasdaq and Standard & Poor's composite all surged in the first moments of trade.

The Commerce Department reported that overall retail sales jumped a much stronger-than-expected 1 percent last month, compared with a revised 0.4 percent decline in the prior month. It was the biggest increase since this July when overall sales rose 1.4 percent.

In corporate news, UAL's United Airlines is in preliminary talks with Continental Airlines about a possible merger, according to media reports.

Oil prices fell 2 cents to $60.98 a barrel in early trade ahead of the weekly U.S. fuel inventory report expected at 10:30 a.m.

The dollar was higher against the euro and the yen.

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Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer LIBOR Warning: Neither BBA Enterprises Limited, nor the BBA LIBOR Contributor Banks, nor Reuters, can be held liable for any irregularity or inaccuracy of BBA LIBOR. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2012 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer The Dow Jones IndexesSM are proprietary to and distributed by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and have been licensed for use. All content of the Dow Jones IndexesSM © 2012 is proprietary to Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Chicago Mercantile Association. The market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2012. All rights reserved. Most stock quote data provided by BATS.
© 2012 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy. Ad choices .
Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer LIBOR Warning: Neither BBA Enterprises Limited, nor the BBA LIBOR Contributor Banks, nor Reuters, can be held liable for any irregularity or inaccuracy of BBA LIBOR. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2012 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer The Dow Jones IndexesSM are proprietary to and distributed by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and have been licensed for use. All content of the Dow Jones IndexesSM © 2012 is proprietary to Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Chicago Mercantile Association. The market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2012. All rights reserved. Most stock quote data provided by BATS.
© 2012 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy. Ad choices .