Retail sales rose 0.9% last month while data for March was revised higher to show sales advancing 1.4% instead of 0.7% as previously reported, the Commerce Department said.

consumers weathering the inflationary headwinds as sales gained for the fourth consecutive month, said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist for LPL Financial.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) gained 1.14%, while the pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) rose 0.96%.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 0.38%, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 0.79% and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 0.93%.

The rally in part is a reaction to oversold conditions after the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 posted their sixth consecutive weekly loss last week, said Anthony Saglimbene, global market strategist at Ameriprise Financial.

The stock market is betting that the consumer is going to break and credit markets are betting that inflation is going to break first," he said.

"The stock market is getting close to overcorrecting and pricing in the probability of a recession that I think is just too high," Saglimbene said.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) gained 2.5%, but the index is still down 16.8% so far this year.

Mainland China's CSI300 Index (.CSI300) gained 1.25% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index (.HSI) rose 3.27%, as tech firms listed in the city (.HSTECH) jumped nearly 6% on hopes of Beijing's crackdown on the sector being relaxed