Wall Street off to merry start

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks opened higher Monday in an abbreviated - and likely light - trading session on Christmas Eve.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq and S&P 500 each started the day slightly higher.

Investors had few economic readings to guide them - other than those that measured the holiday shopping outlook. Retailers said stores were crowded in the final weekend before Christmas, but still expected that sales totals would be modest.

Asian stocks ended higher Monday, with several markets - including Japan's - closed for holidays. European stocks gained ground in early trading.

Oil prices were lower in light Asian trading, with U.S. light crude down 18 cents to $93.13 a barrel after a $2.25 surge Friday on reports of increased consumer spending.

The dollar was down against the euro and yen.

Among stocks in the news Monday, GE Capital, the financial unit of General Electric (GE, Fortune 500), said it would acquire the bulk of operations from Merrill Lynch Capital, the commercial finance unit of Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER, Fortune 500) Merrill's stock rose 2 percent, even though Wachovia Capital analyst Doug Sipkin lowered his fourth-quarter estimate for the company, forecasting a loss from writedowns on collateralized debt obligations, following Merrill's $8 billion writedown in the third quarter.

Merrill was also near to closing a previously-announced deal to sell $4.4 billion to Temasek Holdings, a government-owned investment company in Singapore, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Also, equipment rental company United Rentals (URI) said it had agreed to end its fight to consummate a $4 billion takeover bid from Cerberus Capital Management. United also demanded that Cerberus pay a $100 million termination fee.

Also, News Corp. (NWS, Fortune 500) said over the weekend that it has sold eight owned-and-operated TV stations to private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners for $1.1 billion.

Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) got a 3.5 percent boost on the Frankfurt Exchange, as the company's 120 GB MacBook took Amazon's (AMZN, Fortune 500) top spot for the best-selling computer this holiday season.

U.S. stock markets will close at 1 p.m. ET to begin the Christmas holiday. They will be closed all day Tuesday.