Alcatel Pops on Deal Rumors; Stocks Slide Ahead of Bank Earnings

Stocks erased earlier gains and slipped into the red by the afternoon in Monday's session. Trading had been quieter than normal with investors anxious ahead of key earnings this week including all major banks. Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) increased more than 7% on reports it is exploring unloading its wireless assets onto Nokia. On the whole, tech stocks were a bright spot on markets, led by Netflix (NFLX) which jumped after increasing its share authorization and receiving an upgrade to BUY from UBS. Facebook (FB) followed Netflix, closing with gains of more than 1%. Oil locked in its third straight session of gains, settling above $51 a barrel.