Stocks Close Mixed Despite M&A

Stocks close mixed Monday as investors absorb a surge of corporate deals, including AIG's asset sale to MetLife. Gregg Greenberg has The Real Story.

By Melinda Peer , Mar 8, 2010 5:59 PM EST

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Stocks closed mixed Monday, as several major tech stocks closed higher, but deal news failed to give much of a boost to equities.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

closed lower by 14 points, or 0.1%, to 10,553. The

S&P 500

finished largely flat at 1139, though the

Nasdaq

added 6 points, or 0.3%, to 2332.

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The biggest deal of the day was

AIG's

(AIG) - Get Report

agreement to sell its foreign life insurance business to

MetLife

(MET) - Get Report

in a transaction valued at roughly $15.5 billion. Shares of AIG gained $1.02, or 3.6%, to $29.10 while

MetLife's stock added $1.98, or 5.1%, to $40.90.

Bank of New York Mellon

(BK) - Get Report

agreed to acquire Germany's

BHF Asset Servicing

for $343 million.

Tech stocks finished broadly to the upside.

Cisco Systems

(CSCO) - Get Report

led all advancers on the Dow, adding 3.7% today. Helping boost the stock, the networking giant said in a statement

it would make a "significant announcement" on Tuesday morning "that will forever change the Internet and its impact on consumers, businesses and governments."

Telecommunications firms

Verizon Communications

(VZ) - Get Report

and

AT&T

(T) - Get Report

also helped lead the blue-chip average.

Shares of

Research In Motion

(RIMM)

jumped 5.6% to $73.39, on an analyst upgrade ahead of the company's fourth-quarter results.

Apple

(AAPL) - Get Report

hit a new intra-day high today, continuing a jump that began last week when Apple said its iPad would be in stores on April 3. Apple shares finished the day after adding 0.1% to $219.08 today.

After the closing bell,

Texas Instruments

(TXN) - Get Report

increased its first-quarter outlook, though not enough to impress investors, who sent shares down in extended trading.

Elsewhere,

McDonald's

(MCD) - Get Report

also turned in one of the Dow's best performances, as shares gained $1.45, or 2.3%, to $65.12. McDonald's said same-store sales rose 4.8% in February, supported by a 10.5% sales surge in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa region. U.S. sales, meanwhile, gained only 0.6%.

No major economic reports were released Monday, giving some economists time to mull recent numbers, or look ahead.

The

February jobs report released by the Labor Department Friday showed nonfarm payrolls shed fewer jobs than expected and the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7%. Joseph LaVorgna, Deutsche Bank economist, said the unemployment rate has likely peaked and that job growth is imminent.

"It was a little of a surprise to us that February payrolls declined by 36,000, due in large part to shut-in activity related to inclement February weather," he said. "Despite the latest employment data, we remain of the view that the labor market fundamentals point to significant job creation in the near term -- probably in the March report."

UBS economist Maury Harris looked ahead to February retail sales, which will be released on Friday.

"The heavy snowstorms in February may have weighed somewhat on retail sales growth. However, we forecast another solid gain excluding autos and gasoline in February," he said, adding that UBS estimates call for 0.5% growth, compared to January's increase of 0.6%.

A spate of analyst notes on

steel companies had shares in the sector trading in opposite directions. Shares of

Schnitzer Steel Industries

(SCHN) - Get Report

lost 2.9% after UBS analyst Timna Tanners downgraded the stock to neutral from buy, citing weakening scrap prices.

"First, we think scrap prices will level out and likely fall as they usually do in the spring, as collections improve with better weather, helping boost the flow of scrap. Second, we think valuation is looking more appropriate with the sharp move in the stock's value in the past month. Finally, we think that M&A speculation has been part of the fuel for the stock's recent strength and we think Schnitzer is unlikely to be acquired near term," Tanners said, adding that long-term fundamentals for scrap dealers remain strong.

Shares of

Steel Dynamics

(STLD) - Get Report

and

U.S. Steel

(X) - Get Report

rose 2.5% and 3.6%, respectively, on separate analyst upgrades, while shares of

AK Steel

(AKS) - Get Report

slipped 3% on a downgrade from Goldman.

News that

Daimler