Wall Street higher as consumer and bank stocks gain; Facebook falls

Wall Street's main indexes were higher on Friday as strong December retail sales data drove gains in consumer stocks and bank results pushed up the financial sector.

The S&P consumer discretionary index jumped 0.55 percent after data showed households bought a range of goods and figures for the prior month were revised higher, suggesting the economy exited 2017 with strong momentum.

Amazon rose 1.3 per cent and provided the biggest boost to the S&P and the Nasdaq.

JPMorgan Chase & Co rose 0.5 per cent in choppy trading after the biggest US bank by assets reported profit that beat estimates, benefiting from higher interest rates and loan growth.

Wells Fargo fell 0.7 per cent as the bank set aside more money in fourth quarter to cover expenses related to probes into its mortgage and sales practices.

The S&P financial index rose 0.5 per cent.

"I don't think you would've seen a big pop in bank stocks, no one's surprised by these numbers," said Ron Weiner president and founder of RDM financial in Westport Connecticut.

While tax-related costs are expected to weigh on banks' earnings, they are expected to benefit in the long run from lower tax burden.

Earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to increase on an average by 11.8 per cent in the quarter with profit for financial services companies growing as much, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.