Wall Street shares slightly higher in light, early pre-holiday trade

Share prices posted slight gains on light volumes in early trade, with a lot of the buying interest concentrated in a few well-known names, with many market players absent ahead of the Christmas holidays, dealers said.

At 10.25am, the DJIA was up 30.17 points at 10,054.51, the S&P 500 up 2.68 at 1,147.57, and the Nasdaq composite up 5.77 at 1,951.60.

Dealers said stocks opened with modest gains and were holding onto their modest advantage after the first 55 minutes of trade.

The market was being kept in positive territory by demand for a modest number of shares, but dealers said there were no major sector-wide buying or selling trends, except for a general selloff of airline stocks and some interest in old-line blue chip stocks.

Dealers said today's gains were restrained in large part by the desire of many market watchers to settle their accounts and depart early for the holiday.

In addition, some market players expressed concerns about Argentina, which was forced to default on $132bn in bonds over the weekend.

In Brazil and elsewhere there are concerns about Argentina's economic plight spreading well beyond its borders.

The remainder of today's abbreviated session is expected to remain quiet and light ahead of today's early 1pm closing, dealers said.

Among bluechip stocks in positive territory, Caterpillar was up 6 cents at $51.51, DuPont up 53 cents at $42.38, and International Paper up 38 cents at $39.68.

The airline sector was generally lower, after yet another hijacking incident over the weekend during which passengers on a Miami-bound American Airlines jet from Paris had to be diverted to Boston after a man allegedly tried to blow up his shoe and the entire plane.

AMR Corp, the parent of American Airlines, was down 96 cents at $20.93.

Delta Air Lines was down 99 cents at $27.98 after predicting it will post a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss of $4.06. Previously, the carrier forecast a loss per share of $3.68.

UAL Corp was down 19 cents at $12.83 and USAir was down 41 cents at $5.60.

Schering-Plough was up 90 cents at $37.25, despite lowering its financial profits outlook on Friday.

Dealers said the drug maker was benefiting from recent regulatory approval of Clarinex, an antihistamine treatment which is expected to wrack up large sales.

In addition, dealers said market players apparently are not eager to send Schering-Plough lower because the stock previously was punished during heavy drug sector-wide selling which took place after a recent warning from Merck & Co.

Oil were generally higher due to predictions that the OPEC will cut production by 1.5 million barrels per day on Friday to shore up dropping oil prices.

ExxonMobil was up 70 cents at $39.20 and ChevronTexaco up 39 cents.

Prominent US retail stocks were mixed on the final day of pre-Christmas shopping. Overall retail analysts have been predicting slight year-over-year gains in Christmas merchandise sales.

Home Depot was down 6 cents at $51.44, Kmart up 12 cents at $5.13, JC Penney up 53 cents at $25.92, and Sears up 36 cents at $47.84.

Microsoft was up 26 cents at $67.80 after it sued fellow software maker Lindows for trademark infringement.