U.S. stocks rally after positive GDP report

U.S. stocks ended mildly higher Tuesday as Wall Street pondered over the country's better-than-expected economic growth data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 23.70 points, or 0.12 percent, to 19,121.60. The S&P 500 added 2.94 points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,204.66. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 11.11 points, or 0.21 percent, to 5,379.92.

U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the third quarter of 2016, beating market consensus of 3.1 percent, according to the second estimate released by the Commerce Department Tuesday.

The second estimate is higher than the advance estimate of 2.9 percent. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 1.4 percent.

"Consumer spending led the charge for the best quarter of growth in two years, adding to recent optimism and more than solidifying the Fed's case to resume rate hikes in December," said Jay Morelock and Sophia Kearney-Lederman, economists at FTN Financial in a joint note.

According to the CME Group's FedWatch tool Tuesday, market expectations for a December rate hike were 96.3 percent.

On other economic news, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index came in at 107.1 in November, up from 100.8 in October.

Meanwhile, traders kept a close eye on oil prices volatility ahead of a key meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) later this week.

OPEC had agreed in September to trim production amid a global glut of supply, but left the details of who cuts how much to a meeting in Vienna on Wednesday.

Oil prices zigzagged recently, with both U.S. oil and Brent crude tumbling almost 4 percent Tuesday on news that major oil producers disagreed on distribution of output reduction. Endit