Stocks Lift After Bumpy Start

The major averages track into the green as oil retreats from last week's highs. Retailers Wal-Mart and Home Depot were among the Dow's big gainers.
By Sarina Penn ,

Updated from 9:44 a.m. EDT

Stocks in the U.S. saw some mixed action early Monday, but were lately holding on to their gains, as traders weighed cooling oil futures against a negative-leaning pile of corporate earnings reports.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

started stronger before dipping nearly to the flat line, but recently the index was better by 45 points at 12,791. The

S&P 500

went negative midmorning before rising again, by 3 points at 1391, and the

Nasdaq Composite

was spiking 16 points at 2461.

The advance came as crude retreated from some of last week's massive gains, losing 96 cents at $125 a barrel in recent trading.

Even though the nationwide average for gas prices at the pump touched an all-time high of $3.718, according to AAA, retailers were taking benefit from reprieve in crude. Retailers

Wal-Mart

(WMT) - Get Report

and

Home Depot

(HD) - Get Report

were among the best performing Dow components, and both the Dow Jones U.S. Retail Index and the S&P Retail Index ramped up 0.8% and 0.6%, respectively.

At the same time, gold futures lost $1.80 to $884 an ounce. The U.S. dollar lost grip on some of its early gains against the euro, and was recently dipping by 0.1% to $1.5490. Against the yen, however, the greenback remained higher by 0.5%.

MBIA

(MBI) - Get Report

had a brief stumble out of the gate, but was recently leaping 10.2%, despite losing $2.41 billion in the first quarter. The loss came as the beleaguered bond insurer took a $3.6 billion hit in unrealized losses on insured derivatives.

Mortgage insurer

PMI

(PMI)

also swung to a quarterly loss, and rival

Radian

(RDN) - Get Report

did the same when excluding unrealized gains on derivatives and hybrid securities. Keeping in those gains, the company said its profit came to $195.6 million. Shares were tacking on 2.5% and 7.9%, respectively.

Also swinging to a first-quarter loss was mortgage lender

IndyMac

(IMB)

. The firm, which

lost $184.2 million

, or $2.27 a share, warned that it won't achieve a profit until the plunge in housing prices eases up. Shares were plunging 8.8%.

HSBC

(HBC)

was up 2.9%, however, after saying first-quarter earnings climbed from last year, thanks to its success in emerging markets such as Asia. That came even as the Britain-based bank wrote down $2.6 billion in assets and doubled its loan-impairment charges.

Away from financials,

Sprint Nextel

(S) - Get Report

recovered from an initial fall despite sharply widening its first-quarter loss to $505 million, or 18 cents a share, as it continued to lose subscribers. Stripping out one-time expenses, Sprint made 4 cents a share, or 2 cents better than expected, even as

revenue fell short

.

XM Satellite Radio

(XMSR)

also

lost more money

in its latest quarter, missing the consensus target, but shares ticked up 1.3%. XM's merger partner

Sirius

(SIRI) - Get Report

, which is expected to post its results following the close of trading, was ahead by 1.8%.

Meanwhile, confirmation came that

Cablevision

(CVC)

has agreed to pay Tribune Co. $650 million for the Long Island newspaper Newsday. Over the weekend, Rupert Murdoch's

News Corp.

(NWS) - Get Report

retracted its own $580 million offer

for the paper. Cablevision slipped 1.8%, and News Corp. fell back 0.8%.

Elsewhere, after Friday's market close

FedEx

(FDX) - Get Report

said harsh economic conditions and climbing fuel prices have squeezed its bottom line, and the package-delivery outfit

slashed its current-quarter earnings forecast

. Shares were down 1.2%.

Treasury prices were hiking up. The 10-year note lifted by 11/32 in price to yield 3.73%, and the 30-year bond added 22/32 in price, yielding 4.48%.

Markets abroad were mixed. In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 added 0.6% overnight. Hong Kong was closed. Among European exchanges, the FTSE 100 in London and the Paris Cac reversed early gains to step back roughly 0.1% apiece. Germany's Xetra Dax was up 0.2%.

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