Dow slips amid mergers spate

Investors burdened by angst about upcoming earnings reports shrugged off a spate of mergers and acquisitions news today, leaving stocks with only modest gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 17.07, or 0.16%, to 10,621.03.

Broader stock indicators were moderately higher. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up 4.05, or 0.34%, at 1,190.24, and the Nasdaq composite index gained 8.43, or 0.4%, to 2,097.04.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies was up 4.53, or 0.74%, at 617.74.

A flurry of merger activity – a buy-out of video rental chain Hollywood Entertainment Corp, reported merger talks between Wells Fargo & Co. and British financial giant Barclays PLC and a deal in the wireless telephone sector – was seen as a sign that the economy would remain strong enough to support such deals.

That helped take the edge off of oil prices, which topped $47 per barrel for the first time since December 1 before falling substantially in late trading.

A barrel of light crude settled at $45.33, down 10c, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

But while the markets rose in somewhat uncertain trading, analysts said earnings reports were foremost on investors’ minds – especially corporate profit outlooks for 2005, which could include how companies feel about the prospects for inflation.