Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street at the beginning of a slow holiday week.

Stock Market
Spencer Platt, Getty Images
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Apple led technology stocks higher with a gain of 4 percent after striking a deal to bring the iPhone to China Mobile, the world's largest cell phone carrier.

Darden, which runs Red Lobster and Olive Garden, rose 6 percent after activist investor Starboard Value took a stake in the company.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 73 points, or 0.5 percent, to 16,294 Monday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 rose nine points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,828. The Nasdaq composite rose 44 points, 1.1 percent, to 4,148.

Trading volume was very light ahead of the holidays.

U.S. stock trading will close early on Tuesday and remain closed on Wednesday for Christmas.

 

(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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