The markets retreated from early morning highs during the midday but continued to trade in positive territory with the Dow climbing 81 points to 12,536 as investors weighed the impact of falling consumer confidence. Nasdaq gained 12 points to 2849.

On the upside

Bargain hunters lifted shares of VimpelCom (NYSE: VIP) whose stock price plunged last week after the Russian Court prohibited the telecom from issuing dividends.

BMO Capital Markets upgraded Terex (NYSE: TEX) to an Outperform rating.

J. P. Morgan upgraded Spreadtrum Communications (Nasdaq: SPRD) to an Overweight rating.

On the downside

Shares of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) continued falling which dragged down Zynga (Nasdaq: ZNGA) stock.

The Commerce Department's proposal to impose antidumping tariffs on Chinese solar stocks continued to weigh down LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK).

Shares of Internet radio service Pandora Media (NYSE: P) fell after Samsung introduced a new music service for its flagship Galaxy S3 smartphone in Europe.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 5 points to 771.