NEW YORK, Nov 24 — Stocks on Wall Street were mixed in early trading today, as consumers geared up to spend big on the first day after the Thanksgiving holiday, known as "Black Friday.”

The shortened trading day is likely to see less activity than regular ones, Quincy Krosby from LPL Financial told AFP.

"The day is expected to be quite boring or slow,” she said, adding that investors will be eyeing consumer spending in this period.

The retail sector’s efforts to entice holiday gift purchases will be followed by "Cyber Monday” after the weekend.

Around 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2 per cent at 35,325.56.

The broad-based S&P 500 was flat at 4,5555.79, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell by 0.2 per cent to 14,233.80.

"It would be unusual for the market to continue to climb until the end of the year without a pullback,” said Krosby from LPL.

Stocks of major retailers rose slightly early today, with Walmart up 0.1 per cent.

However, online retailer Amazon was trading around 0.3 per cent lower following reports of planned strike action over pay and working conditions in more than 30 countries. — AFP