U.S. stocks rebound amid economic data

NEW YORK, April 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded higher in the morning session on Monday as investors digested a batch of newly-released economic reports.

Around midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 209.63 points, or 0.86 percent, to 24,569.77. The S&P 500 increased 19.78 points, or 0.74 percent, to 2,676.08. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 40.39 points, or 0.57 percent, to 7,147.04.

Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for March came in at 494.6 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 0.6 percent from the previous month and beating market consensus, the Commerce Department announced Monday.

Meanwhile, business activity grew at a solid clip in New York State, according to firms responding to the April 2018 Empire State Manufacturing Survey.

The headline general business conditions index, at 15.8, remained firmly in positive territory, although its seven-point decline from its March level pointed to a somewhat slower pace of growth.

In corporate news, shares of Merck jumped over 2 percent around midday after the company said its cancer-treatment drug Keytruda reduced the risk of death in the trial by 51 percent when combined with chemotherapies, versus chemo alone.

Investors also kept a close eye on the U.S.-led strikes on Syria over the weekend. The United States, along with its allies Britain and France, launched a surprise missile attack against Syrian military positions early Saturday morning, causing a flurry of mixed reactions across the Middle East. Enditem