U.S. stocks mostly climbed Monday, with the Nasdaq Composite rebounding from a more than 1 percent drop, as investors turned to large-cap companies while tracking developments in Ukraine, increased deal activity and an ongoing sell-off in social media and other new tech companies.
"The bounce back is really just big-cap leading the way. This is just a big-cap short-covering rally," said Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at the Lindsey Group, who noted the late-session rebound as the Dow and S&P 500 hit or breached their 50-day moving averages.
"Everybody is staring at the same screens, the same levels and trading it the same way," Boockvar added.
Reports that Russian troops had returned to their bases from the border with Ukraine after Ukraine said it would not use force also surfaced late in the session, Boockvar said.
Drug manufacturer Pfizer rose after saying it had renewed contact with AstraZeneca on resuming takeover discussions after two prior offers for its British rival failed. General Electric climbed after Germany's Siemens made a competing offer for French engineering firm Alstom. Forest Laboratories said it would acquire Furiex Pharmaceuticals for up to $1.46 billion.
"It's a continuation of the theme of selling everything that is high growth, with a lot of the money moving into old technology," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities.
Tesla Motors, Netflix, Priceline.com and Amazon.com were among the shares being sold, with shares of Netflix hit after Microsoft announced plans to create original programming, joining the field of those competing with Netflix as the provider of online entertainment strives to produce original content.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose as much as 138 points and fell 48. It ended unofficially up 87 points, or 0.5 percent. The S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent. The Nasdaq declined 1.2 percent.
