Stocks indexes were mixed Monday ahead of the latest round of corporate earnings reports. Alcoa Inc. will release its results after the market closes.
The week started with news of two big corporate deals. DuPont, a major chemical company, said it would buy a Danish food maker for $5.8 billion. Duke Energy Corp. said it would buy Progress Energy Inc. in a $13 billion deal that will create one of the nation's largest utilities. Duke fell 1.5 percent to $17.52.
The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 38 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,638 in afternoon trading.
The Standard & Poor's 500 lost 2, or 0.2 percent, to 1,270. The Nasdaq composite gained 1, or 0.1 percent, to 2,705.
Losses were spread across the market. Industrial, materials and information technology companies were the only members of the 10 industry groups that make up the S&P index to rise. 3M Co. led the 30 stocks that make up the Dow with a 1 percent gain. DuPont had the largest fall, giving up 2.7 percent to $48.41.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq index posted small gains thanks in part to the shares of Apple Inc., which gained 1.7 percent, and Netflix Inc., which jumped 3.3 percent. Playboy Enterprises Inc. soared 17 percent after agreeing to be taken private by a group of investors led by the company's founder, Hugh Hefner.
European stocks fell after a German newspaper reported that France and Germany are pressing Portugal to accept outside aid to keep Europe's financial crisis from spreading. Portugal has denied that it needs to do so. If the country requires help, it will join Greece and Ireland as the third member of the European Union to tap its neighbors for a bailout.
Italy, Spain and Portugal are each scheduled to sell bonds this week. If they have to pay higher interest rates, the debt crisis could spread.
"Italy and Spain are the big wildcards," said Paul Zemsky, the head of asset allocation at ING Investment Management. "If they got into trouble there's not enough money to bail them out."
No major economic reports are scheduled for Monday. On Friday, the Labor Department said that employers added fewer jobs in December than analysts expected. That report helped push the S&P down 0.2 percent.
After the market closes, Alcoa is expected to post a fourth-quarter profit of 18 cents per share, according to estimates compiled by FactSet. The aluminum company earned 9 cents a share in the third quarter.
Oil companies fell after a pipeline in Alaska was shut Saturday after a leak was discovered at a pump station. Production of crude oil was cut to 5 percent of its normal output. Exxon Mobil Corp., BP and Chevron Corp. each fell by more than 0.5 percent.
Bond prices rose slightly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.32 percent from 3.33 percent late Friday. The yield is used to set interest rates on many kinds of loans including mortgages.
The dollar lost 0.2 percent against an index of six other currencies.
