U.S. stock market futures notched higher Monday, with retailing a focus after preliminary figures suggested a solid start to the holiday shopping season, with some mergers-and-acquisitions activity also lending support.

On Friday, markets finished a strong week with gains, albeit accompanied by low volume. The Dow industrials rose 15.5 points to 10,931, the S&P 500 rose 2.6 points at 1,268 and the Nasdaq 100 rose 3 points at 2,263.

The National Retail Federation said there was a 22 percent increase in shopping over the long Thanksgiving weekend, with electronics in particular in hot demand.

ShopperTrak reported that the Friday after Thanksgiving saw a 0.9 percent decline in sales, though the Chicago-based firm said the figure was still an indicator of healthy demand since last year's sales were so strong.

Canadian oil and gas producers Harvest Energy Trust and Viking Energy Royalty Trust said that they have agreed to merge into a combined entity which will retain the Harvest name and will have an initial enterprise value of over $4 billion.

American Pharmaceutical Partners Inc. said it has reached an agreement to buy its largest shareholder, privately-held American BioScience Inc., in a multi-billion dollar deal. Under the terms of the deal, American Pharmaceutical will issue 86 million new shares to American BioScience shareholders. Biotechnology company American BioScience owns 64 percent of American Pharmaceutical.

UBS upped insurance company Conseco Inc. to buy from neutral, saying it believes the stock is poised for meaningful upside. The broker told clients an A.M. Best ratings upgrade to "A" from "B++" could occur in mid-2006.

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