NEW YORK, April 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks ended higher on Monday as investors digested a batch of newly-released economic reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 212.90 points, or 0.87 percent, to 24,573.04. The S&P 500 increased 21.54 points, or 0.81 percent, to 2,677.84. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 49.63 points, or 0.70 percent, to 7,156.28.

Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for March came in at 494.6 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 0.6 percent from the previous month and beating market consensus, the Commerce Department announced Monday.

Meanwhile, business activity grew at a solid clip in New York State, according to firms responding to the April 2018 Empire State Manufacturing Survey.

The headline general business conditions index, at 15.8, remained firmly in positive territory, although its seven-point decline from its March level pointed to a somewhat slower pace of growth.

In corporate news, shares of Merck jumped 2.59 percent to 58.65 dollars apiece after the company said its cancer-treatment drug Keytruda reduced the risk of death in the trial by 51 percent when combined with chemotherapies, versus chemo alone.

Bank of America's shares rose 0.44 percent to 29.93 dollars apiece on Monday after the U.S. bank delivered better-than-expected quarterly results.

Investors also kept a close eye on the U.S.-led strikes on Syria over the weekend. Enditem