US STOCKS-Wall St kicks off big retail earnings week on high note

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* Home improvement retailers seen getting sales boost
* Principia Biopharma at record high on Sanofi buyout
* JD.com surges on strong results
* Indexes up: Dow 0.03%, S&P 0.33%, Nasdaq 0.64%

(Updates to market open)
By Ambar Warrick and Medha Singh
Aug 17 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes opened higher
on Monday as retailers prepared to wind down a
better-than-feared quarterly earnings season, while the S&P 500
continued to hover just below record-high levels.
The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX traded about three points off a
record closing high hit in February after flirting with that
level for most of last week as a clutch of data pointed to a
wobbly recovery for the world's biggest economy.
"It goes back to the basic factor - with interest rates low,
next to zero even though yields have gone up, there is no place
to put your money so stocks continue to hover near record
highs," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan
Capital Securities in New York.
"I am not sure if we can (hit a record high) today because
up until now there's no particular news that would spark a
strong rally."
Home improvement chains such as Lowe's Cos Inc LOW.N and
Home Depot Inc HD.N are expected to have received a bump to
sales from consumers looking to do minor repair work while
spending more time at home due to the pandemic.
The retailers, along with Walmart Inc WMT.N and Target
Corp TGT.N , rose more than 1% ahead of their quarterly
earnings reports later in the week.
As of Friday, 457 companies in the S&P 500 had posted
results, of which 81.4% came in above dramatically lowered
expectations, according to Refinitiv data.
Minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest meeting, due on
Wednesday, are expected to provide more insight into the central
bank's view of an economic recovery.
Figures this week are likely to show another jump in housing
starts, as certain facets of the economy slowly grind back from
a pandemic-driven trough.
Investors are also girding their portfolios for market moves
ahead of the U.S. presidential vote, as the election season
kicks into higher gear with the Democratic National Convention,
which runs Monday through Thursday.
The Republican convention will be held from Aug. 24 to Aug.
27 and both will be mostly virtual this year due to the COVID-19
pandemic. At 9:38 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 7.40 points, or 0.03%, at 27,938.42 and the S&P 500 .SPX
was up 11.04 points, or 0.33%, at 3,383.89. The Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 70.19 points, or 0.64%, at 11,089.49.
Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors rose, with technology
.SPLRCT providing the biggest support to the benchmark index.
Among individual movers, Principia Biopharma Inc PRNB.O
jumped 9.3% to a record high after French healthcare firm Sanofi
SA SASY.PA said it would buy the company for about $3.7
billion. Shares of Chinese ecommerce player Alibaba Group BABA.N
were flat after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he
could exert pressure on more Chinese companies after he moved to
ban TikTok earlier in the month. Alibaba's peer JD.com Inc JD.O rose 2.3% after it beat
analysts' estimates for quarterly revenue as more customers used
its online platform to shop for groceries and other essentials
in the face of the pandemic. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.45-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.33-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 15 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 35 new highs and two new lows.