NEW YORK, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street inched up in early trading Monday, as oil price retreated slightly and an upbeat assessment from HSBC Holdings offset a profit warning from FedEx.

Crude fell 1.11 U.S. dollars to 124.85 dollars per barrel in pre-market electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices surged nearly 10 percent last week, which weighed on transportation companies. FedEx on Friday warned fourth-quarter profit would be hurt on high fuel costs.

However, the banking giant HSBC rose after it said first-quarter profit increased, as emerging-markets growth offset 3.2 billion dollars write-downs on subprime mortgage assets in the United States.

The Dow Jones rose 37.21 to 12783.09. Broader indexes also climbed with the Standard & Poor's 500 index up 2.11 to 1,390.39 and the Nasdaq rising 5.63 to 2,451.15.