Jingle bells versus oil wells

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The continued dispute with Iran pushed oil prices higher and could give stocks a rough start to the final week of the year, although they could get a boost from reports of a strong end to the holiday shopping season.

Stock futures were narrowly higher in early trading, although a comparison to fair value, which predicts the direction of stocks at the open, pointed to a mixed start to the trading day. Light trading volumes in stocks during the holiday week could lead to volatile markets.

Oil prices rose early Tuesday after Iran stepped up threats in the wake of U.N. Security Council sanctions on Saturday due to its nuclear program.

U.S. light, sweet crude climbed 61 cents to $63.02 a barrel in electronic trade. Brent crude jumped 67 cents to $63.09 a barrel.

But market research firm Shoppertrak said Monday that its initial estimates indicate that sales this past Saturday totaled $8.72 billion, just short of Black Friday's strong sales of $8.96 billion.

Industry watchers said retailers this week will focus in capturing crucial post-Christmas sales. For instance, Sears (Charts) on Tuesday is giving shoppers special "cash-back" offers on home appliances.

Treasury prices edged higher early Tuesday, with the yield on the 10-year note slipping to 4.61 percent from 4.62 percent on Friday.

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

There was limited corporate news early Tuesday. Computer security researchers and hackers have found more flaws in Microsoft's (Charts) Vista, the long-awaited update to the Windows operating system, according to a report in Monday's New York Times.

The U.S. Army announced late Friday it had awarded Boeing (Charts) a $650 million contract to rebuild Chinook helicopters and another $406 million to build new ones. Also announced late Friday, Lockheed Martin (Charts) won a $635 million contract to manufacture 216 modification kits for various aircraft for the Turkish Air Force.

Dow component Alcoa (Charts) reached a labor deal with a local in Cleveland Sunday that could end a seven-week strike. But Trinidad Prime Minister Patrick Manning announced in a Christmas Eve speech that was blocking plans by the company to build an aluminum smelter there.

The United Steelworkers said it reached a tentative agreement with Goodyear Tire and Rubber (Charts), which requires Goodyear to rescind its demand for immediate closure of its Tyler, Texas plant, and instead provide for a one-year period of transition. Shares of Goodyear rose 1.2 percent in after-hours trading Friday.

Markets that were open closed mostly higher in Asia, but some markets were closed there for Boxing Day, the holiday that follows Christmas. And all stock markets in Western Europe also were closed.

More market news and futures ahead of the U.S. open