By Jonathan Cheng U.S. stocks edged higher for a fifth straight day as investors welcomed a better-than-expected reading on consumer confidence and oil rose above $100 a barrel, lifting energy stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained eight points, or 0.1%, to 12302 in midday trading. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index advanced one point, or 0.1%, to 1266 and the Nasdaq Composite gained three points, or 0.1%, to 2622. Energy stocks strengthened, after crude-oil futures shot up to above $101 a barrel. Chevron led the Dow components with a 0.6% rise. Investors also flocked to the safety of utilities stocks, which led the S&P 500 sectors. Utilities stocks have gained 15% this year. Pulling on the downside were financial stocks. Bank of America fell 1.3% to lead the Dow decliners, and J.P. Morgan Chase dropped 0.7%. "It's Day Five. This move started on Tuesday, and we've been up 4.5% to 5% from that level, so it's hard to just keep extending this rally," said Scott Redler, chief strategic officer at T3 Trading Group. The moves kick off a holiday-shortened week that comes after a week that saw the Dow gain 3.6%, including a 124-point rally on Friday that sent the blue-chip index to a five-month high. The S&P 500 also moved back into positive territory for the year, and is up 0.7% with just three full sessions remaining in 2011. Helping the rally was a reading on consumer confidence that showed the measure at an eight-month high of 64.5 in December, easily topping expectations for a reading of 56.0. More importantly, some said, the "labor differential"--a measure of job prospects--improved to its best level since early 2009. "What we're seeing is that people see there are more jobs are around," said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG. "We've seen a lot of improvement in labor-market numbers lately. Clearly there's something going on here." The consumer-confidence number helped a handful of household brands push to all-time highs. McDonald's gained 0.5% after breaking above $100 a share level for the first time in its history on Friday. Starbucks gained 0.7% and Visa added 0.3% to reach their own respective all-time highs. Intuitive Surgical rose 1% to a fresh peak. "There's a group of five to ten stocks that are all at all-time highs that are rewarding stock pickers," said Mr. Redler. "These stocks all pay a dividend and they're trading at P/E ratios that are reasonable." European markets finished flat, with the Stoxx Europe 600 inching up less than 0.1%. The U.K. market is closed, and activity and news flow elsewhere remain light. Asian bourses finished broadly lower. China's Shanghai Composite shedding 1.1% to close at its lowest level since March 2009. Gold futures fell back below $1,600 an ounce, while the U.S. dollar lost some ground against the euro and the yen. Treasurys inched higher, sending the yield on the benchmark 10-year note down to 2.0133%. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 major U.S. cities showed a year-on-year decline of 3.4% in October, giving little solace to investors looking for a slowdown in the recent months' accelerating decline. However, regional Federal Reserve reports on Richmond and Dallas-area manufacturing came in below expectations. In corporate news, Sears Holdings slumped 24% after the retailer said it would close 100 to 120 Kmart and Sears stores to reduce costs, and added it expects take fourth-quarter non-cash charges between $1.6 billion and $2.4 billion related to a valuation allowance and impairment on some goodwill balances. The company also said quarter-to-date same-store sales through Dec. 25 declined 5.2%. Mead Johnson Nutrition rallied 6% after the company said over the weekend that a new round of sample testing of its Enfamil Premium Newborn formula didn't detect any presence of a potentially deadly bacteria. Cal-Maine Foods climbed 4.8% after the egg producer reported fiscal second-quarter earnings and revenue that exceeded expectations. Elsewhere, Parlux Fragrances soared 78% after the company said late Friday that it agreed to be acquired by Perfumania Holdings for about $170 million in cash and stock. Perfumania tumbled 26%.

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