The markets opened mixed as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of corporate earnings news. The Dow slipped 6 points to 12,885 while Nasdaq edged up a point to 2424.
On the upside
Family-owned candy maker Mars has offered to buy Wrigley (NYSE: WWY) for about $23 billion in cash or $80 a share. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) will purchase a $2.1 billion minority equity stake in the Wrigley subsidiary once the deal is completed.
Investors snapped up China-related companies with shares of Sohu.com (Nasdaq: SOHU) and Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) rising.
Shares of Ford (NYSE: F) rose in heavy trading as analysts pinned growth for the automaker on sales of smaller, full-efficient cars.
On the downside
A deadline for Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) to accept a buyout offer from Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) passed on Saturday with no movement on either side.
Shares of Radio Shack (NYSE: RSH) fell ahead of its corporate earnings report after an analyst lowered his opinion on the consumer electronics retailer.
Shares of ExpressJet Holdings (NYSE: XJT) gave up some of Friday's gains after the regional carrier rejected an offer from SkyWest (Nasdaq: SKYW).
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin
of 6 to 5 on the NYSE and by 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell
2000 which tracks small cap stocks held steady at 721.
