US stocks waver between gains and losses in midday trading

New York (AP) — U.S. stocks indexes wavered between gains and losses Monday as the market comes off its latest record high. Trading has been quiet since earnings season is mostly finished and investors had only a couple of corporate deals to work through.

Keeping score: The Dow Jones industrial average gained eight points, or 0.04 percent, to 18,280 as of 12:05 p.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose four points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,127 and the Nasdaq composite rose 18 points, or 0.4 percent, to 5,066. All three indexes were mostly lower in morning trading.

Deals: Ann Inc., the parent company of Ann Taylor and Loft, jumped $7.57, or 20 percent, to $46.27 after it agreed to be acquired by The Ascena Retail Group.

Endo International fell $2.52, or 3 percent, to $82.79 after it agreed to buy the privately held Par Pharmaceutical for $8 billion.

Apple of his eye: Apple rose $1.56, or 1 percent, to $130.34 after activist investor Carl Icahn called for the technology giant to increase its share buyback and said Apple's shares are valued around $240. Apple and Icahn have fought the last couple of years, but Icahn has been mostly successful at getting Apple to increase its share buybacks and dividends lately.

Caution aplenty: Greece said Monday it needs to reach a deal with creditors to get more bailout cash by the end of the month if it to avoid default. Greek government bond prices fell on the news, sending the yield on Greece's 10-year bond up to 11.34 percent from 10.60 percent.

Germany's DAX edged up 1.3 percent and Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.1 percent. France's CAC 40 rose 0.4 percent.

Energy: Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 17 cents to $59.51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Bonds: U.S. government bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.22 percent from 2.15 percent Friday.

Currencies: The euro slipped $1.1345 from $1.1390 on Friday. The dollar climbed to 119.86 yen from 119.38 yen on Friday.

By Ken Sweet, AP Business Writer. Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Gayly – May 18, 2015 @ 11:50am.