Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with words exchange+holiday. 4 news.

SAN FRANCISCO -- (MarketWatch) -- Crude oil fell below $93 a barrel on Monday ahead of the Christmas holiday. Crude futures for February delivery were last seen down 46 cents, or 0.5%, at $92.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose to an intraday high of $93.84 in electronic trading early on speculation demand for heating oil may increase during the winter.

SAN FRANCISCO(MarketWatch) -- Gold futures were little changed on Monday ahead of the Christmas holiday. Gold futures for February delivery were last up $1.4, or 0.2%, at $816.8 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The futures rose to an intraday high of $817.5 earlier. In currencies trading, the dollar were slightly lower against a basket of other major currencies. The dollar index was last down 0.2% at 77.58.

With hours to go until your holiday gift exchange, you need one-stop, easy in-and-out shopping. These three businesses should make it possible to put a check mark beside just about every name on your list. Prices and selections may have changed since press time.

Today we're casting our gaze further and covering a fortnight. It's Christmas Eve and the London Stock Exchange will close early, while many other international markets are closed completely. These include Japan, where they are marking the Emperor's birthday, which fell yesterday, with a public holiday. The NYSE, which is open today, will take a day off tomorrow, along with the LSE and almost every other major world market ? the exception is that Japan returns to work.