NEW YORK (AP) A burst of corporate deals and strong earnings reports helped push U.S. stock indexes higher in early trading Monday. If the gains hold, it will be the fourth straight increase for the S&P 500, marking the longest winning streak in more than two months.
KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 rose 10 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,680, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 164, or 0.7 percent, to 24,476, and the Nasdaq composite added 36, or 0.5 percent, to 7,156.
REFINED GAINS: Andeavor jumped to the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after Marathon Petroleum said it will buy the refiner and pipeline owner for more than $23 billion. Andeavor, which used to be called Tesoro, soared 20 percent to $142.29.
GOBBLED UP: McDonald's jumped 4.4 percent to $165.24 after it reported healthier profit and revenue than analysts expected for the first three months of the year. Sales at its restaurants open more than a year were much stronger than Wall Street had forecast.
PUT ON HOLD: Sprint and T-Mobile US fell in the first day of trading after the companies announced a $26.5 billion deal to merge. The pair have been considering a combination for years, but investors are unsure whether this attempt will get the necessary approvals from U.S. regulators.
Sprint dropped 12.1 percent to $5.72, and T-Mobile lost 5.3 percent to $61.07.
DISTRIBUTED GAINS: DCT Industrial Trust, a logistics real-estate company, soared 12.4 percent to $66.05 after Prologis, an owner of distribution centers and other logistics real estate, agreed on Sunday to buy it in an all-stock deal.
DCT shareholders will receive 1.02 Prologis shares for each share they own. With nearly 94 million shares outstanding, that values DCT at $6.38 billion, according to Friday's closing prices.
OFF THE SHELF: U.K. grocer Sainsubry's agreed to buy Walmart's U.K. unit, Asda, for 7.3 billion pounds ($10.1 billion) in cash and stock. The deal would create Britain's largest supermarket chain. Walmart rose 1.7 percent to $88.80.
BUSY WEEK AHEAD: Besides being the heart of earnings reporting season for companies, this week will also feature a policy meeting for the Federal Reserve on interest rates. The Fed will announce its decision on Wednesday.
On Friday, the government releases its jobs report, which is usually the most anticipated economic report of each month.
COMMODITIES: Benchmark U.S. crude fell 47 cents to $67.63. Brent crude, the international standard, dropped 27 cents to $73.52. Gold lost $11.70 to $1,311.70 per ounce.
YIELDS: Prices for Treasury bonds were mixed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note dipped to 2.95 percent from 2.96 percent late Friday. The two-year yield inched up to 2.49 percent from 2.48 percent, and the 30-year yield dipped to 3.12 percent from 3.13 percent.
CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 109.40 Japanese yen from 109.02 yen late Friday. The euro fell to $1.2069 from $1.2121, and the British pound dipped to $1.3737 from $1.3785
MARKETS ABROAD: In Europe, France's CAC 40 rose 0.4 percent, and Germany's DAX was close to flat. The FTSE 100 in London rose 0.1 percent. In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 1.7 percent, and South Korea's Kospi added 0.9 percent. Markets in Japan were closed for holidays.