NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stocks mustered gains at the open Friday, following the previous session's big selloff, as a mild reading on inflation and a slide in oil prices nudged wary investors to scoop up equities.

The Dow Jones industrial average (down 81.08 to 10,962.36, Charts), the S&P 500 (up 1.12 to 1,287.18, Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (up 2.28 to 2,318.97, Charts) all inched higher in the early going.

The rally hit some resistance Thursday, as investors bailed out after a strong start to 2006 that had set the major gauges at multi-year highs.

After the selloff, investors were a bit cautious Friday, although a mild inflation report and falling oil prices provided some support.

The producer price index (PPI) rose a bigger-than-expected 0.9 percent in December. However, the "core" PPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, increased by a smaller-than-expected 0.1 percent.

That was a good sign for market participants betting on the Federal Reserve pausing or ending its 18-month rate-hiking campaign soon.

Also helping early sentiment was a fall in the price of oil. U.S. crude oil for February delivery slipped 46 cents to $63.48 a barrel in electronic trading.

On the downside, a report showed December retail sales grew less than expected, both in terms of overall sales and sales excluding autos.

Among stock movers, Lucent Technologies (unchanged at $2.71, Research) slumped after warning that 2006 revenue will miss forecasts and fiscal first-quarter revenue will fall short of the fourth quarter, due to weaker sales in the U.S. and China.

Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 4.38 percent from around 4.41 percent late Thursday. Treasury bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

The dollar inched lower versus the euro and was little changed versus the yen.

COMEX gold for February delivery rose 20 cents to $549.50 an ounce.