Stocks Grind Out Gains

Updated from 4:12 p.m. EDT

Stocks struggled to find solid footing at the start of a short trading week, but after an unsteady session Wall Street managed to finish with modest gains Tuesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, for a time better by 57 points, ended up 14.06 points, or 0.1%, at 13,521.34. The S&P 500 rose 2.38 points, or 0.2%, to 1518.11, and the Nasdaq was higher by 14.87 points, or 0.6%, at 2572.06.

Any traders worried that the long holiday weekend might slow the torrid pace of merger-and-acquisition activity awoke to find those fears misplaced, as once again dealmaking was dominating the headlines.

The biggest potential combination had a group led by Royal Bank of Scotland saying it will pursue the acquisition of ABN Amro (ABN Quote) for more than $95 billion. The offer exceeds a competing bid from Barclays.

Elsewhere, Tishman Speyer Properties and Lehman Brothers (LEH Quote) are going after the real estate investment trust Archstone-Smith (ASN Quote) in a takeover worth more than $22 billion.

Meanwhile, a combination of two engineering firms has also been set, with URS (URS Quote) agreeing to acquire Washington Group (WNG Quote) for $2.6 billion. And Avaya (AV Quote), whose market value is around $6.1 billion, is considering selling all or part of the company, reports indicate.

One of the biggest stock movers was Peru Copper (CUP Quote), which slumped almost 20% after the company said a deal couldn't be reached with a potential buyer. The mining concern will continue to evaluate its alternatives.