Stocks inch higher in early trading

NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks edged higher Monday after a new round of mergers and acquisitions raised hopes for the economy.

Financial shares rose after insurer American International Group Inc. reached a deal to sell one of its major foreign divisions to MetLife Inc. for $15.5 billion. MetLife had confirmed last month it was in talks with AIG to buy the unit known as Alico.

It's the second major sale AIG has made this month as part of its plans to trim operations, shed assets and repay more than $100 billion in government bailout money it received during the credit crisis.

Also, Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina offered to buy Australia's Arrow Energy Ltd. for $3 billion in cash and stock. Royal Dutch Shell already owns a 10 percent stake in Arrow's international business.

In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 2.72, or less than 0.1 percent, to 10,568.92. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.82, or 0.1 percent, to 1,139.51, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 3.39, or 0.2 percent, to 2,329.74.

Meanwhile, bond prices fell Monday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.71 percent from 3.69 percent late Friday.

The dollar fell against other major currencies, while gold dropped.

In corporate news, McDonald's Corp. said Monday that sales at restaurants open at least a year climbed 4.8 percent in February on strong overseas growth and a small rise in U.S. sales. McDonald's rose $1.30, or 2 percent, to $64.97.

With little economic data due during the first half of this week, traders will be looking for other cues to give the market direction.

Investors will get a handful of economic reports toward the end of the week that should provide some insight into the health of the economy. Reports on wholesale and business inventories, retail sales and consumer sentiment are all scheduled for release beginning Wednesday and running through the rest of the week.

Major indexes all jumped more than 1 percent on Friday after the Labor Department said employers cut fewer jobs in February than predicted. The unemployment rate also held steady at 9.7 percent. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters forecast it would rise.

The encouraging signs in the report have investors hopeful that employers will start to add jobs in the coming months. High unemployment has been a major stumbling block to a sustained recovery.

Among stocks, AIG rose $1.44, or 5.2 percent, to $29.52, while MetLife rose $1.74, or 4.5 percent, to $40.66.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 0.35, or 0.1 percent, to 666.37.

Four stocks rose for every three that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 182.5 million shares compared with 177.6 million shares traded at the same point Friday.

In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.1 percent, and France's CAC-40 advanced 0.1 percent. Earlier, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 2.1 percent.