Stocks Fail to Find Footing

Another arrangement will see Triad Hospitals (TRI Quote) taken private by affiliates of CCMP Capital Advisors and GS Capital Partners in a $4.7 billion acquisition. Shares of Triad Hospitals jumped $6.38, or 14.7%, to $49.65.

Elsewhere, Simon Property (SPG Quote) and Farallon Capital have bid $24 a share for Mills (MLS Quote), topping by $3 the price of a deal with Brookfield Asset Management (BAM Quote).

Simon tacked on 1.1% to $116.27, Mills surged 16.8% to $25.87, and Brookfield gained 2.1% to $49.88.

Meanwhile, auto-parts makerLear (LEA Quote) jumped 11.5% after billionaire investor Carl Icahn's American Real Estate Partners made an offer to buy the company for $36 a share. Lear gained $3.97 to $38.64.

Turning to the day's research calls, Credit Suisse upgraded Dell (DELL Quote) to outperform from neutral and raised its price target by $3 to $28. Shares closed up 38 cents, or 1.6%, at $23.90.

Deutsche Bank downgraded Chevron (CVX Quote) to sell from hold and cut its price target to $65 from $67, but CIBC lifted its target on the oil giant to $82 from $73. Chevron lost 26 cents, or 0.4%, to $73.78.

Over the weekend, Dow component Wal-Mart (WMT Quote) said that January same-store sales rose 2.2%, coming in higher than the retailer's prior forecast of a 1% to 2% gain. Wal-Mart added 44 cents, or 0.9%, to $48.52.