Wall St. edges up as market's upward bias continues

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged higher in a thinly-traded session on Monday as the market's recent upward bias continued and put the Dow on track for an eighth straight daily advance.

Equities have trended to the upside of late, with the S&P 500 up 5.9 percent over the past seven sessions, ending at its 52nd record close of the year on Friday. The Dow's seven-session streak is its longest since March 2013, when it rose for ten straight sessions.

The speed and scale of the rally could limit upside, especially in the final trading week of the year, when many market participants are out on holiday and there are few catalysts. Volume is expected to remain light, which could leave the market more susceptible to big swings. The stock market will be closed on Thursday for New Year's Day.

"Everything is a go right now, but there?s no reason to expect we?ll start seeing big moves this week. I don?t see anything ... that could derail or upset the market," said Mark Martiak, senior wealth strategist at Premier Wealth/First Allied Securities in New York.

Energy shares were among the day's biggest gainers. The S&P energy index <.SPNY> rose 0.5 percent alongside a rise of 0.3 percent in crude oil . Oil ticked higher on concerns about disruption to exports from Libya, though it remains sharply lower for the year, having fallen in 12 of the past 13 weeks.

Nabors Industries , a drilling contractor, was one of the S&P's top percentage gainers, up 3 percent at $13.21. Newfield Exploration rose 1.5 percent to $27.38.

Gilead Sciences Inc rose 2.8 percent to $96.48 after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to "overweight" from "equal-weight."

LiveDeal Inc jumped 20 percent to $3.94 on volume of 6.7 million shares, many times its 50-day average of about 455,000 shares. The move came after the company reported its 2014 results.

At 11:18 a.m. the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 6.33 points, or 0.04 percent, to 18,060.04, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 3.95 points, or 0.19 percent, to 2,092.72 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 5.53 points, or 0.12 percent, to 4,812.39.

U.S.-listed shares of the National Bank of Greece fell 7.5 percent to $1.83 after the country's parliament failed to elect a new president, throwing the country's international bailout into doubt. The main Athens stock market index <.ATG> fell 3.9 percent.

"Greece is always worth paying attention to, but it?s a hiccup. I don?t see it as anything that makes a difference in the overall market," Martiak said.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,844 to 1,093, for a 1.69-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,366 issues rose and 1,227 fell for a 1.11-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 was posting 63 new 52-week highs and 5 lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 110 new highs and 26 new lows.

(Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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