US open: Stocks higher in early trading

Wall Street stocks recorded early gains on Monday as the final full trading week for the year gets underway.

As of 1530 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.01% at 37.309.00, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.35% to 4,735.63, and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.38% firmer at 14,870.34.

The Dow opened 3.84 points higher on Monday, narrowly extending gains recorded in the previous session as market participants turned their attention to the US central bank.

Investor sentiment turned positive late last week after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell seemingly indicated that three short-term interest rate cuts were expected to take place in 2024 amid cooling inflation.

On Friday, however, New York Fed president John Williams and Atlanta Fed head Raphael Bostic both pushed back on growing expectations for rate cuts. Williams said it was too early for policymakers to begin thinking about lowering borrowing costs as they consider whether policy was restrictive enough to get inflation back to its 2% target, while Bostic stated he foresees two rate cuts in 2024, starting from the third quarter.

On the macro front, the National Association of Housebuilders' housing market index edged up to 37 in December, up from an almost 12-month low of 34 in November and beating forecasts for a reading of 36. Homebuilder sentiment rose for the first time in five months, boosted by falling mortgage rates and recent economic data that seems to indicate that housing conditions have improved heading into 2024.

The sub-index for current single-family home sales remained steady at 40, while the sub-index for expected home sales over the next six months went up to 45 from 39. Elsewhere, the gauge for prospective buyers went up to 24 from 21.

In the corporate space, shares in US Steel shares surged at the open after Japan's Nippon Steel announced its acquisition of the company in a deal valued at $14.9bn, while software giant Adobe also traded higher on the back of news that it was scrapping its proposed $20.0bn merger with cloud-based design platform Figma as a result of regulatory hurdles.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com