By Abhiram Nandakumar
(Reuters) - U.S. stocks were higher in early afternoon trading on Monday after a choppy start as investors absorbed the impact of Friday's deadly attacks in Paris.
Oil prices rose after French air strikes in Syria but soon reversed course amid concerns of an oversupplied market. Exxon's shares rose 1.6 percent, while Chevron was up 2.1 percent.
Investors saw little long-term economic impact from the attacks, with nine of the 10 major S&P sectors higher, led by telecom and energy stocks.
"Expectations are that (the attacks) will have a modest potential economic impact," said Eric Wiegand, senior portfolio manager at the Private Client Reserve at U.S. Bank in New York. "As a result, markets have the potential to look through this over the very near term."
Sectors linked to travel and leisure, however, took a hit on Monday.
American Airlines was down 2.5 percent, United Continental 1.8 percent and Delta Airlines 3.1 percent.
Cruise operator Carnival Corp fell 2.5 percent, while travel company Expedia was down 2.8 percent.
At 12:41 p.m. ET (1741 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was up 116.71 points, or 0.68 percent, at 17,361.95, the S&P 500 was up 12.44 points, or 0.61 percent, at 2,035.48 and the Nasdaq Composite index was up 9.93 points, or 0.2 percent, at 4,937.82.
"(Monday's trading) reflects the skittishness of the markets here," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida. "Investors are looking for any piece of information and often over-reacting to any piece of information."
The Paris attacks added to the uncertainty in the market, with investors fretting about consumer spending ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season and the Federal Reserve's meeting on interest rates next month.
U.S. stocks logged their largest weekly loss since August last week on the back of weak economic data and disappointing earnings from retailers such as Macy's.
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett told CNBC he was not selling any securities from his portfolio as a result of the attacks.
Buffett cut his stakes in Goldman Sachs and Wal-Mart in the quarter to Sept. 30, and raised his holding in IBM, according to a regulatory filing. Goldman was nearly flat. IBM was up 1 percent and Wal-Mart 1.5 percent.
Starwood Hotels fell 5.9 percent to $70.58 after agreeing to be bought by Marriott International for $12.2 billion, or $72.08 per share. Marriott fell 0.4 percent to $72.45.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,835 to 1,088. On the Nasdaq, 1,354 issues fell and 1,316 advanced.
The S&P 500 index showed three new 52-week highs and 14 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 11 new highs and 135 new lows.
(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
