US midday: Wall Street starts holiday-shortened week higher

Wall Street has begun the holiday-shortened week in good form as traders try to shake off two consecutive weeks of losses.

At 1900 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was ahead by 0.40% or 92.78 points at 23,451.02, alongside a gain of 0.20% or 5.19 points for the S&P 500 to 2,584 and an advance of 0.10% or 6.66 points on the Nasdaq Composite which was at 6,791.

Among the strongest segments of the market were: Apparel retailers (5.35%), Coal (4.80%) and Tires (2.72%).

Nonetheless, trading volumes were expected to be a little lighter during the current week ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.

Acting as a backdrop, on Monday afternoon US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen announced that she would not remain on the central bank's board as a governor once her current tenure as president was up.

Back on the political front, earlier in the same day the US president announced that North Korea would be added back to the list of countries that are state sponsors of terrorism, with new sanctions against Pyongyang set to be unveiled on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the economic agenda was rather sparse, with traders left with only the Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators to digest.

The think-tak's gauge rose by a hearty 1.2% month-on-month in October, doubling analysts' forecasts.

"The growth of the LEI, coupled with widespread strengths among its components, suggests that solid growth in the US economy will continue through the holiday season and into the new year," said Ataman Ozyildirim, Director of Business Cycles and Growth Research at The Conference Board.

In corporate news, shares of chip maker Cavium jumped following a report that Marvell Technology is close to a deal to buy the company for around $6bn.

Stock in fashion retailer Abercrombie&Fitch was another standout gainer after the company posted better-than-expected third quarter earnings and reported a 4% rise in like-for-like sales for that three-month stretch, easily beating analysts who had anticipated a modest 0.4% improvement.

E-commerce company Alibaba was also on the front foot after saying it will buy a 36% stake in China big-box retailer Sun Art Retail Group for $2.88bn.