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 Investors may not look for too many answers in Monday's abbreviated session
-- a pro forma occurrence a day ahead of Christmas when many stock markets around the world, including those in the U.S., are closed. Still, with only five trading days remaining in the year, investors will perhaps be looking for any opportunity to tidy up their positions after a year that that brought the return of volatility after several years of unusual calm.
Friday's gains have some investors hoping for a so-called Santa Claus rally
-- a year-end surge that often extends into the new year and can burnish portfolios. On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 200 points and, along with the other major indexes, posted a gain of more than 1.5 percent for the session.
Early Monday, Dow futures rose 3.00, or 0.02 percent, to 13,553. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 0.10 percent, or 0.01 percent, to 1,498.10, while Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 4.50, or 0.21 percent, to 2,132.75.
Bonds showed little change. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note remained flat at 4.17 percent compared with late Friday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
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 The stock market closes three hours early at 1 p.m. EST, while the bond market closes at 2 p.m.
Light, sweet crude fell 25 cents to $93.06 in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The holiday meant there was little in the way of corporate or economic news. Alcoa Inc. said late Friday it struck a deal to sell its packaging and consumer businesses to New Zealand-based Rank Group Ltd. for $2.7 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter and comes after Alcoa said in April it would consider options for the businesses.
Overseas, stock markets in Japan were closed for Christmas. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.44 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 1.70 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.06 percent.
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On the Net:
New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com/
Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com/
[Associated Press; By TIM PARADIS]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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