NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks mostly rose early Monday, opening a news-heavy week amid optimism that equities will see a “Santa Claus” rally at the end of the year.

Following a lackluster trading performance last week, markets were confident the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates on Wednesday.

Other economic watch items this week include data on November retail sales and personal consumption prices, as well as earnings from Nike and FedEx.

About 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was unchanged at 43,822.64.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent to 6,064.86, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.4 percent to 20,013.06.

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Among individual companies, Honeywell International jumped 1.9 percent after announcing it is considering spinning off its aerospace business, a move applauded by activist firm Elliot Investment Management.

“Following the portfolio enhancements announced earlier this year, Honeywell is now well-positioned for significant transformational alternatives, and we are continuing our deeper, more granular exploration of their feasibility and possible timing,” Honeywell Chief Executive Vimal Kapur said.

The year-end period is traditionally a buoyant stretch for equities, with the “Santa Claus” rally consisting of the last five trading days of December and the first two of January.