Abercrombie & Fitch jumped 23.9 percent and Gap rose 7.0 percent after the apparel retailers reported results that beat estimates.
Shares of sports retailers soared on better-than-expected earnings. Foot Locker jumped 28.2 percent, Shoe Carnival surged 29.7 percent and Hibbett Sports gained 15.2 percent.
Twenty-First Century Fox shares rose 6.2 percent after two people familiar with the situation said both Comcast and Verizon were interested in buying parts of its studio and TV operations.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.83-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.50-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
About 6.3 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, below the 6.8 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.
This story was provided by Reuters.