US open: Positive open on the Street following solid performance by retailers over Black Friday

Wall Street trading began on a positive note on Monday as oil prices staged a timid bounce and stocks tried to recover from record-breaking losses over the Thanksgiving week.

At 1530 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 1.41% higher at 24,627.27, while the S&P 500 had picked up 1.27% to 2,665.89 and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.54% firmer at 7,046.15.

The Greenback was slightly higher, with the US dollar spot index edging up 0.04% to 96.9540, while Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate were both 3.15% higher at $60.90 and $52.01 per barrel, respectively.

On the geopolitical front, market participants were keeping a keen eye on events surrounding this week's G20 meeting in Buenos Aires, where it's expected that Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping will discuss trade.

"Expectations remain low about a solution in the short term with the prospect that tariffs could well increase at the beginning of next year from the current 10% to an increased rate of 25%," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.

"While deal expectations have been set to a low level, an agreement to not implement the proposed increased rate at the beginning of next year could be described as progress."

Investors were also watching developments across the pond Theresa May's Brexit plan being signed off at the EU summit on Sunday and as Italian PM Matteo Salvini signalled over the weekend that the country may lower its contentious borrowing target.

Energy-related shares were in focus as oil prices recovered after Friday's plunge and ahead of next week's OPEC meeting.

However, despite the gains, Oanda analyst Craig Erlam pointed out the performance paled in comparison to the losses seen last week.

"Trump has been publicly pressuring the group (OPEC) to let prices fall while praising Saudi Arabia for its role in the falls, something sceptics have tied to the President apparently turning a blind eye to the country’s role in the Khashoggi murder," said Erlam.

"There is perhaps a belief that the Saudis will avoid taking measures to significantly raise prices next week in a bid to appease Trump, although I remain sceptical this will happen."

Retailers were also in focus as data from Adobe Analytics showed that online sales hit a record $6.22bn on Black Friday, rising 24% from a year ago.

"If this pattern extends into today’s Cyber Monday then the US economy could well sustain its decent performance over the last two quarters right into the end of the year," said Hewson.

Amazon shares were up 3.11% in early trade after it revealed that customers were shopping at record levels, while Best Buy and Target were up 2.59% and 1.69%, respectively.

In terms of data, improvements in employment-related indicators saw the Chicago Fed National Activity Index rise to 0.24 in October from the 0.14 recorded in September, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

The Dallas Fed manufacturing business index was still to come.