9:45AM Wall Street opened higher, helped by better-than-expected same-store sales and merger news.

Wall Street rallied at opening Thursday, boosted by optimism about consumer spending after retailers released June sales reports. Wal-Mart (WMT: chart) rose 2.5% on higher-than-expected same-store sales. Nordstrom (JWN: chart) and Limited Brands (JWN: chart) also posted same-store sales above the average forecast, sending their shares up 3% and 2%, respectively.

Among other retail companies, J.C. Penney (JCP: chart) climbed 3.5% after it reported lower same-store sales in June, beating estimates. Costco (COST: chart) said its same-store sales rose but came below analyst expectations. The stock added 0.2%. Macy's (M: chart) reported a bigger-than-anticipated decline of 2.7% in June same-store sales. The department store operator cut its Q2 earnings outlook. The stock dropped 3.6%.

A higher bid for aluminum maker Alcan (AL: chart) also generated positive mood. Rio Tinto offered to buy Canadian aluminum company Alcan for $38.1 billion, topping a bid from Alcoa that was rejected in May. Alcan shares surged 9%, while Dow member Alcoa rose 6%. In another deal, Huntsman (HUN: chart) agreed to be bought for $28 a share in cash, or $10.6 billion, by Hexion Specialty Chemicals Inc. Huntsman shares dropped 4%.

In the first minutes of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 76.25, or 0.56%, to 13,654.12. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 7.92, or 0.52%, to 1,526.68, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 13.23, or 0.50%, to 2,665.02.


9:30AM London is higher Thursday on a strong rally in the mining sector.

The benchmark index FTSE 100 in London is 0.45% higher by mid-day, at 6,645. Investors shrugged off subprime mortgage fears and focused on Rio Tinto and its bid to buy Alcan. Rio, the second-biggest mining company in the world, made a cash offer of $101 a share for Alcan, valuing the latter at $38.1 billion.

Advancers

Miners hogged the limelight with Rio Tinto’s offer, boosting mining stocks. Antofagasta firmed 2.4%, Vedanta Resources gained 3.9%, Kazakhmys was up by 2.0% and Xstrata rose 2.4%.

Man Group reported that sales in the three months to June 2007 were $3.8 billion, while funds under management rose from $61.7 billion at March to $67 billion at June. The stocks rose 1.7%.

Kingfisher added 1% as Morgan Stanley upped its recommendation on the home-improvement retailer from underweight to equal-weight.

Decliners

Whitbread suffered profit taking after the stock made strong gains in the session on Wednesday on the back of bid speculation. Today, though, bid talk waned and the group, which runs Premier Travel Inn hotels and Beefeater restaurants, shed 3.2%.

Royal Dutch Shell shed 1.1% after it was downgraded by UBS to neutral from buy. Credit-checking company Experian declined 1.3% after it revealed that some markets are challenging despite expecting organic sales to grow at a mid-to-high single digit rate for the year.


9:00AM U.S. stock futures pointed higher on deal news and retail sales.

U.S. stock futures pointed higher on Thursday, driven by gains in the metals sector, as well as some better-than-expected sales among retail stocks. Rio Tinto''s $38.1 billion offer for Alcan and Wal-Mart''s robust June sales managed to offset negative sentiment generated by profit warning from Motorola and other unimpressive retail results. Wal-Mart (WMT: chart) rose 2.3% in pre-open trade, as the retailer said June same-store sales rose 2.4% and confirmed quarterly profit outlook.

In other corporate news, motorola (MOT: chart) warned of a Q2 loss on lower-than-forecast revenue. On the merger-and-acquisition news front, Anglo-Australian metals giant Rio Tinto agreed to buy Canadian aluminum producer Alcan (AL: chart) in a cash deal worth $38.1 billion, or $101 a share.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said that the U.S. trade deficit widened in May by 2.3% to $60 billion, in line with expectations. Exports increased 2.2% to a record $132 billion, but imports of goods and services into the United States grew faster at 2.3%, rising to a record $192.1 billion. S&P 500 futures rose 2.3 points at 1,533.40 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose a half-point at 2,010.00. Dow industrial futures rose 27 points.