Stocks Narrowly Mixed on Profit-Taking

NEW YORK – Stocks were narrowly mixed Monday as investors collected profits, looking past lower oil prices and several mergers and acquisitions, including Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.’s $1.5 billion bid for several candy brands from Kraft Foods Inc.

The pullback in energy prices and the pickup of M&A activity were encouraging to analysts, who were not distressed by the day’s lackluster trading. After three solid weeks of gains, and in the absence of any new economic data, it’s natural for investors to take a step back and book some profits.

“People are trying to figure out what’s next for the market,” said Dean Junkans, chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Client Services. “We’ve had a nice run, post- election … I think people are looking for that year-end rally, and wondering whether we’ve already gotten a bunch of it of if we’ve got more to run. I think we’ve got more to run.”

In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.51, essentially flat at 10,539.52, after a gain of 1.46 percent last week.

The broader gauges were narrowly mixed. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index declined 2.56, or 0.22 percent, to 1,181.61, following a 1.54 percent rise. The Nasdaq composite was up 0.57, or 0.03 percent, at 2,085.91, after a weekly gain of 2.28 percent.

Oil prices dropped to a two-month low, continuing a three-week trend that has taken crude futures down from their record $55-per-barrel level. Light, sweet crude for December delivery was down $1.32 at $46 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Investors were also weighing the resignations of four members of President Bush’s cabinet following the election, including Secretary of State Colin Powell and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. Including the latest resignations, six members of the president’s 15-member Cabinet have announced plans to step down for his second term.

General Electric Co. fell 25 cents to $36.00 after announcing plans to buy SPX Corp.’s Edwards Systems Technology fire-and-security unit for nearly $1.4 billion in an all-cash deal, both companies said Monday. SPX Corp. was up $2.23, or 5.2 percent, at $45.22, on the news.

Wrigley added 70 cents to $68.06 after the candy and gum maker announced an agreement to buy several brands, including Life Savers and Altoids, from Kraft for $1.48 billion. Kraft was down 12 cents at $34.76 on the news.

Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, was up 8 cents at $45.08 after announcing plans to buy MarketWatch Inc. for about $519 million in a deal that would end a monthlong bidding war for the online financial news and information provider. MarketWatch, which operates two Web sites, CBS.MarketWatch.com and BigCharts.com, was up $1.11, or 6.6 percent, at $17.90.

Lowe’s Cos. Inc. was down $1.90, or 3.2 percent, at $58.35, despite reporting a 15.5 percent rise in third-quarter earnings, and offering a bullish forecast. Its results beat Wall Street expectations by 6 cents a share.

Declining shares outnumbered advancers by about 5 to 4 on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume came to 617.57 million shares, compared to 593.45 million shares at the same point Friday.

The Russell 2000 index, which tracks smaller company stocks, was down 1.85, or 0.30 percent, at 620.13.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average surged 1.88 percent. In afternoon trading in Europe, France’s CAC-40 lost 0.30 percent, Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 0.04 percent and Germany’s DAX index declined 0.23 percent.

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