Retail sales rose 0.4% in December to lift the markets to a higher open with the Dow climbing 64 points to 25,638. Nasdaq slipped 3 points to 7208.

On the upside

Shares of Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD) climbed for the fourth day in a row.

Synaptics (Nasdaq: SYNA) stock continued to advance.

Shares of Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) rose after Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) announced changes to its news feed that could lower its ad revenue.

On the downside

Morgan Stanley downgraded Etsy (Nasdaq: ETSY) from an Equal Weight rating to an Underweight rating.

Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) will change its news feed to present more stories from users' friends and families over those created by companies.

Former Aflac (NYSE: AFL) employees have sued the insurance firm for exploitation.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 4 to 3 on the NYSE and by 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 added 3 points to 2,770. Bitcoin leaped $828 to $13,894.