US open: Traders shrug off oil price slides

US stocks opened higher on Monday, despite weaker oil prices causing some concern heading into the short week.

After two days of losses, the S&P 500 opened 17 points higher at 2,022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 141 points to 17,269, and the Nasdaq Composite started the week up 41 points to 4,964.

The only major US data release of the day was the Chicago Federal Reserve National Activity Index - a monthly index of overall economic activity. It moved down to -0.30 in November, from -0.17 in October. Its three-month moving average decreased to -0.20 from -0.18.

"November's (moving average) suggests that growth in national economic activity was somewhat below its historic trend", the Chicago Fed said in a statement.

"The economic growth reflected in this level ... suggests subdued inflationary pressure from economic activity over the coming year."

It was widely tipped that investors would be overlooking the still-sliding oil prices. Brent touched levels it hadn't since 2004, at $36.13 per barrel while West Texas Intermediate fell 0.6% to $35.49 per barrel.

James Hughes, chief market analyst at GKFX, had earlier noted commodity prices would remain key for stockmarket gains in this short holiday trading week.

"Volume will be light, so traders will have to keep an eye on opil as many start to take profits and come out of positions as we approach the end of the year", he said.

"Santa maybe just around the corner, but don't rule out the commodity rout stealing the limelight just yet."

On the currency front, the dollar strengthened against the yen after the Nikkei slipped on Monday, off the back of the news Toshiba was expecting a loss of £3bn. At 1453 GMT, USD $1.00 was worth JPY 121.16983.

Total sales for the year were projected at JPY 6.2trn, down 6.8%. Toshiba put the wider loss down to restructuring costs and a deterioration in its semiconductor and infrastructure divisions. It planned to cut to 7,000 jobs in consumer electronics, while 5% of its global workforce could be culled by the end of the fiscal year.

The pound was weaker too, at £0.67039. The Euro started to make up earlier losses, trading at EUR 0.91799, and the Aussie was doing the same at AUD 1.39357.

In companies, Tiffany & Co was up 2.5% in early trading after its shares were upgraded from 'hold' to 'buy' at Jeffries, and its price target was raised from USD $88 to $100. The bank described it as "a rare opportunity to get a high quality company at a discount".

Shares in Yahoo moved slightly higher, up 0.3%, after FBR said a sale of the company's core business could fetch between USD $5.4bn and $7.1bn - far more than some analysts had recently predicted.

Newfield Exploration shares shed 4.3% to lead the decliners on the S&P 500, amid the poorer oil price environment.

ONEOK led the gainers on the S&P 500 index, up 4.4%, after the firm issued stronger 2016 guidance than anticipated thanks to volume growth in its natural gas and natural gas liquids businesses.

And Microsoft led the Dow advancers, just a few days after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock from neutral to sell on the company's cloud computing opportunities, with analyst Heather Bellini saying Goldman had previously "failed to appreciate" the stock's abilities.

US markets see a short week, closing early on Christmas Eve and reopening on 28 December with a full trading day.