NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks rose early Monday to open a holiday-shortened trading week as Paramount fortified its hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery in the takeover battle with Netflix.
Market watchers are girding for a low-key week, with equity markets closing early Wednesday and all day Thursday for the Christmas holiday, a dynamic expected to result in light trading volumes.
About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2 percent at 48,221.36.
The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.4 percent to 6,864.76, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.5 percent to 23,434.62.
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Interactive Brokers Steve Sosnick predicted stocks would drift higher in the absence of major trading catalysts.
“Barring any outside shocks, this kind of pattern is likely to prevail until the end of the year,” Sosnick said.
Paramount Skydance jumped 5.3 percent after announcing that billionaire Larry Ellison is offering a $40.4 billion personal guarantee to Paramount’s hostile bid for WBD, addressing concerns about the Paramount’s earlier proposal.
WBD gained 3.5 percent while Netflix declined 1.1 percent.
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