Retailers reported brisk foot traffic to open the holiday shopping season. Meanwhile, investors looked for bargains among blue chip stocks as the Dow surged 116 points to 12,915. Nasdaq added 18 points to 2581.

On the upside

Retailers prepared for a slower shopping season with numerous pre-dawn store openings and door specials. Shares of Circuit City Stores (NYSE: CC) and Target (NYSE: TGT) climbed.

According to a CNBC report, E-Trade Financial (Nasdaq: ETFC) was reportedly being shopped to rivals Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade.

Shares of Petrochina (NYSE: PTR) rose after analysts upgraded the stock on valuation.

On the downside

Shares of Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) fell for a 2nd day in a row after the Chinese solar cell maker posted profits that missed estimates.

The software sector lagged with shares of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) losing ground.

Shares of Home Solutions of America (Nasdaq: HSOA) hit a multi-year low on news of a possible Nasdaq delisting after the home restoration service firm failed to submit its quarterly filing.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks rose 9 points to 749.