U.S. stocks rise after strong Cyber Monday sales

NEW YORK, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded higher in the morning session Tuesday, as Wall Street cheered on strong sales in the holiday season.

By noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 122.71 points, or 0.52 percent, to 23,703.49. The S&P 500 rose 12.18 points, or 0.47 percent, to 2,613.60. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 16.78 points, or 0.24 percent, to 6,895.30.

Amazon continued to rally in the early trading on Tuesday after strong Cyber Monday sales, and the E-commerce giant has been rising about five percent since the holiday season kicked off this year.

Meanwhile, investors also paid close attention on Jerome Powell's confirmation hearing to become the next Federal Reserve chair.

"If confirmed, I would strive, along with my colleagues, to support the economy's continued progress toward full recovery," said Powell in remarks to be delivered at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

"We expect interest rates to rise somewhat further and the size of our balance sheet to gradually shrink," Powell said in the remarks which were released Monday before his hearing.

Analysts said his prepared remarks paint a broad-brush picture of an unchanged Fed for the most part.

On the economic front, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index reported Tuesday a 6.2-percent annual gain in September, up from 5.9 percent in the previous month. Enditem