"There were some warning signs from Target, but if you look at personal income and retail sales, they have been strong all year," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities, in an interview. "That suggests the consumer has buying power."

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.0% at 44,296, the S&P 500 was 0.4% higher at 5,969, and the Nasdaq Composite had added 0.2% to 19,003. Helping the Dow outperform was Boeing ( BA ), which climbed 4.1%, as well as American Express ( AXP, +2.8%) and Nike ( NKE, +3.1%).