U.S. stocks made minor gains early on Monday but gave much of them up towards the close as airline stocks dipped.

Better-than-expected retail stocks helped the broader market, but trading was light a smany invetsors have yet to return from their Christmas break

The U.S. dollar drifted lower.

Enhanced security screening at airports impacted airline stocks. Delta, which owns Northwest, the airline that carried a passenger on the weekend that tried to blow his plane up, declined sharply.

At the close of trading Monday the Dow Jones Industrials were up 26.98 points or 0.26% at 10,527.08.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 5.39 points or 0.24% at 2,291.08.

The Standard and Poor's 500 was 1.30 points or 0.12% at 1,127.78.

The euro traded at 1.4378 around the New York close Monday. The Japanese yen inched up to 91.61, while the British pound advanced to 1.5998.

The Swiss franc was slightly higher at 1.0341, while the Australian dollar firmed to .8872. The Canadian dollar was stronger at 1.0420.