(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)Wall Street's rally slowed through Monday afternoon as crude oil prices continued be a drag investor enthusiasm. WTI crude oil was down around a further 1% at US$35.70 on Monday while Brent crude the international benchmark lost about 1.4% to US$36.35. Energy stocks as a sector were down about 0.6% with the likes of Chevron (NYSE:CVX) ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) and Petrobras (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) among the notable fallers – losing 1.2% 0.6% and 7% respectively. Overall though the stock market saw a positive start to the week. The Dow Jones was up about 60 points 0.35% at 17189 while the S&P 500 gained 0.46% to 2014 and the Nasdaq moved 0.66% higher to 4955. Wall Street rallies at start of short light week The Dow Jones advanced around 106 points 0.6% to trade at 17235 this morning at the start of a shorter lighter trading week. At the same time the S&P 500 was up about 0.7% at 2020 while the Nasdaq gained 0.77% to 4960. Shares in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose 0.6% to US$106.62 after it announced a settlement with Ericsson (ADR) (NASDAQ:ERIC) in a mobile phone patent dispute. Ericsson shares gained 5.36% to US$9.61 each. Shares in Disney (NYSE:DIS) rallied in early deals as investors cheered a record breaking first weekend at the box office for its first Star Wars movie (after it bought out George Lucas) which reportedly took in excess of US$500mln worldwide. Momentum was however lost as full trading got underway and the stock was down more than 1% in the first hour. Cable firm Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) fell about 1.3% amid speculation it was looking to buy British broadcaster ITV. Wall Street futures pointing higher ahead of holidays Upon Friday's close in New York the so-called 'Santa Clause rally' looked well and truly scrooged. The annual phase of window dressing and short-covering occurring amid dwindling pre-holiday trading volumes typically puts a shine on the year-end; though with 367 point fall on the Dow Jones last Friday it appears the market's been naughty not nice. Nevertheless Monday's pre-market indicators at least indicate a paring of the losses with the Dow Jones futures up around 140 points at 17158 the S&P 500 futures about 20 points higher at 2011 and the Nasdaq rising 43 points to 4548. The price of oil and weak energy stocks remain a key feature of trading and crude was lower again at the start of the week – WTI is down almost 1% at US$35.72 while Brent was 1.2% lower at US$36.44. With just a few trading days left till the holidays its unsurprising that company news driven events are few and far between. Disney is set for a Jedi shaped boost after its first Star Wars movie recorded the largest ever opening weekend at the box-office with an estimated US$238mln taken in the US and over US$500mln coming worldwide. Given that most if not all movie production costs were covered by marketing and merchandising deal the force is clearly very strong for the rebooted sci-fi franchise.
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