U.S. stocks head for higher open

NEW YORK - U.S. stocks headed for a moderately higher open Monday following strong gains Friday and as Wall Street tries to determine whether it can expect a year-end rally.

Investors may not look for too many answers in Monday's abbreviated session ¡X a pro forma occurrence a day ahead of Christmas when many stock markets around the world, including those in the U.S., are closed. Still, with only five trading days remaining in 2007, investors will perhaps be looking for any opportunity to tidy up their positions after a year that that brought the return of volatility after several years of unusual calm.

Friday's gains have some investors hoping for a so-called Santa Claus rally ¡X a year-end surge that often extends into the new year and can burnish portfolios. On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 200 points and, along with the other major indexes, posted a gain of more than 1.5 percent for the session.

In the final hour before the opening bell Monday, Dow futures rose 32, or 0.24 percent, to 13,582. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 2.10 percent, or 0.14 percent, to 1,500.10, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 1.50, or 0.07 percent, to 2,138.75.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 4.21 percent from 4.17 percent late Friday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

The stock market closes three hours early at 1 p.m. EST, while the bond market closes at 2 p.m.

Light, sweet crude rose 24 cents to $93.55 in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The holiday meant there was little in the way of corporate or economic news.

Still, GE Capital, the financial arm of General Electric Co., said Monday it agreed to acquire most of Merrill Lynch Capital's operations. Merrill Lynch Capital is a commercial finance unit of Merrill Lynch & Co. Terms of the deal weren't made public but the acquisition will add $10 billion in assets to GE Capital, which has about $260 billion in assets under management.

Alcoa Inc. said late Friday it struck a deal to sell its packaging and consumer businesses to New Zealand-based Rank Group Ltd. for $2.7 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter and comes after Alcoa said in April it would consider options for the businesses.

Overseas, stock markets in Japan were closed for Christmas. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.70 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 1.70 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.21 percent.