Stocks Rally after Retail Sales Top Forecasts

U.S. stocks rallied at the open on Tuesday, after a better-than-expected report on U.S. retail sales boosted sentiment on Tuesday. The Dow was  last up 54 points, or 0.3%, to 16,312, while the S&P 500 gained 8 points, or 0.4%, to 1,827. The Nasdaq Composite rose 20 points, or 0.5%, to
4,133.

Wells Fargo & Co (WFC), the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, reported a better-than-expected 11 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit as a steep fall in bad-loan provisions helped to make up for a big drop in mortgage lending. Net income applicable to common shareholders rose to $5.37 billion, or $1.00 per share, from $4.86 billion, or 91 cents per share, a year earlier, the fourth-biggest U.S. bank said on Tuesday.

JPMorgan Chase & Co reported a better-than-expected adjusted quarterly profit as the biggest U.S. bank kept a lid on costs and set aside less money to cover bad loans. The bank, which agreed last week to pay $2.6 billion to settle government and private claims over its handling of accounts of fraudster Bernie Madoff, said fourth-quarter net income fell 7.3 percent to $5.28 billion, or $1.30 per share.