NEW YORK, Nov 22 — Wall Street stocks mostly rose early today following mixed earnings from retailers before the holiday shopping season starts.

Shares of Best Buy rocketed more than eight per cent higher after the electronics retailer’s earnings topped analyst expectations, while discount chain Dollar Tree fell by a similar percentage as it cautioned that higher costs were crimping profit margins.

The holiday shopping season kicks off later this week with "Black Friday,” the day after Thursday’s Thanksgiving break when markets will be closed.

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5 per cent at 33,879.20.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.3 per cent to 3,961.85, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.3 per cent to 10,989.66.

The early increases on the Dow and S&P 500 were a reversal from yesterday’s losses, when worries about China Covid-19 restrictions weighed on sentiment.

Analysts have offered a cautious outlook on the year-end shopping season, with leading forecasters predicting increased sales, but not necessarily above the rate of inflation.

The festive period comes with inflation rates in the United States at multi-decade highs, constraining purchases of discretionary items. — AFP