NEW YORK (AFP) - – US stocks crept higher Monday ahead of the unofficial kickoff of the corporate earnings season, closing the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 11,000 for the first time in 18 months.
The blue-chip Dow gained 8.62 points, a fractional 0.08 percent, to finish at 11,005.97.
The last time the bellwether index closed above the psychologically significant 11,000 threshold was on September 26, 2008, days after the collapse of Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers triggered a global financial meltdown.
On Friday, the Dow briefly crossed the 11,000-level in intraday trade for the first time since September 29, 2008. The index has rallied nearly 70 percent from its March 2009 low, but remains more than 20 percent below record 2007 highs.
The tech-rich Nasdaq composite added 3.82 points (0.16 percent) at 2,457.87 on Monday and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index points climbed 2.11 (0.18 percent) to 1,196.48.
"The equity markets finished modestly higher as traders played their cards close to the vest ahead of first-quarter earnings season," Charles Schwab & Co. analysts said in a client note.
Market action was "rather quiet and trading volume has been moderate," Briefing.com analysts said, citing a "lack of interest among investors."
Aluminum giant Alcoa, the Dow component that unofficially gets the earnings season rolling, saw its share rise 1.25 percent to 14.57 dollars. After the market close it reported losses narrowed by more than half from a year ago.
Electricity providers Mirant Corp. and RRI Energy announced a merger to create GenOn Energy, saying it would be one of the largest independent power producers in the United States with market capitalization of 3.1 billion dollars.
Mirant climbed 18.17 percent to 12.68 dollars and RRI Energy gained 14.68 percent at 4.53 dollars.
Defense contractor DynCorp International skyrocketed 48.17 percent to 17.41 dollars after agreeing to be acquired by private investment firm Cerberus Capital Management in a 1.5-billion-dollar deal, including debt.
Oil firm ConocoPhillips rose 1.16 percent to 55.96. It is selling its stake in Canada's Syncrude to Chinese oil giant Sinopec for 4.65 billion dollars.
AIG added 8.08 percent at 41.22 dollars. According to The Wall Street Journal, the derivatives unit of the troubled insurer has unwound most of its soured mortgage trades with Goldman Sachs that remained after the US government bailed out the company in 2008.
Peabody Energy advanced 3.58 percent to 48.01 dollars after announcing tie-up talks with India's Coal India about long-term coal supplies and other potential ventures.
Microsoft slipped 0.07 percent to 30.32 dollars after unveiling a new mobile phone named "Kin" aimed at young users and social-networking friendly.
Ailing handheld device maker Palm vaulted 17.05 percent to 6.04 dollars, after adding more than 30 percent last week, on speculation it will be bought.
Wall Street posted solid gains Friday, with the Dow capping a six-week winning streak.
Bonds strengthened. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond dropped to 3.846 percent from 3.888 percent Friday and that on the 30-year bond declined to 4.698 percent from 4.746 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
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