Wall Street nudges up

Wall Street recovered from a mostly down session today, ekeing out a gain as investors brushed off another slide in Chinese stocks.

The market had little in the way of corporate or economic news to give it direction, but while it was in negative territory for much of the day, in the end it shook off an 8.3% slide in the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index.

The Chinese index had its biggest one-day drop since the February 27 plunge that set off a brief global market selloff as the Chinese government attempts to cool the country's market boom.

Investors used today to adjust positions after both the Standard & Poor's 500 and Dow Jones industrial average surged to record closes in the previous session. The market was encouraged by economic data released last week that suggested the US economy was slowing, but not too quickly, and inflation remained in check.

However, today the Commerce Department reported that orders to US factories were weaker-than-expected in April. Investors might find some information to trade from with the release of the Institute of Supply Management's manufacturing index tomorrow, but not much else is on tap.

"I think you're seeing a combination of investors wanting to take some profit on a Monday morning, and some fear because of what happened in China," said Ryan Detrick, a senior technical strategist for Schaffer's Investment Research. "There's really no major drivers in the market, so we're really just meandering along."

The Dow rose 8.21, or 0.06%, to 13,676.32.

Broader stock indicators also narrowly mixed. The S&P 500 index rose 2.84, or 0.18%, to 1,539.18, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 4.37, or 0.17%, to 2,618.29.

The Dow and S&P again snagged record closes today, and the S&P moved closer to its trading high of 1,552.87, set in March 2000.

Last week, the Dow posted a 1.19% gain; the S&P 500 index rose 1.36%; and the Nasdaq composite index added 2.22%.

The bond market moved higher, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury falling to 4.93% from 4.96% late Friday. The Commerce Department report had some impact on the bond market on hopes weaker data will mean an interest rate cut this year.

The report showed 0.3% in manufacturing growth in April, and economists expected a rise of 0.7% after a 3.1% jump in March.

The dollar slipped against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Oil prices rose after a Nigerian militant group announced a one-month cease-fire, and a US gasoline pipeline was restarted.

A barrel of light sweet crude rose $1.13 to $66.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold slipped.

Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at Spencer Clarke, said the near term will be dominated by higher energy prices and bond yields - two catalysts that could cause the equities market to pull back. He believes there is complacency among investors, and that the market will need a correction before resuming an advance later in the summer.

"As investors look ahead, we're past the earnings season, the Fed seems to be out of the way for the moment, and we've had a run-up in equities prices over the past few months," he said, referring to the Federal Reserve's current policy of stable interest rates.

"Given continued uncertainty in the housing sector, and rising energy and food prices, it appears likely to us that we should have a period of consolidation or profit taking before the market turns higher again."

In corporate news, dealmaking activity continued this week. Smartphone maker Palm Inc. said Monday it got $325m (€240.9m) from private equity firm Elevation Partners and announced a shakeup on its board. Palm spiked 1.48 dollars, or 9.2%, to 17.57 dollars.

Publisher Dow Jones & Co. fell 1.04 dollar to 60.16 dollars as the owner of The Wall Street Journal met with Rupert Murdoch about the possibility of an acquisition. Murdoch's News Corp. has offered $5bn (€3.7m) for the company.

Oil and natural gas producer Anadarko Petroleum Corp. said late last night it is selling natural gas gathering systems and associated processing plants to Atlas Pipeline Partners LP for $1.85bn (€1.37bn).

Anadarko rose 2.30 dollars, or 4.6%, to 51.95; Atlas shares rose 8.14, or 22.9%, to 39.56.

Solectron Corp. rose 51 cents, or 15.2%, to 3.88 after rival Flextronics International Ltd. Said it would by the contract electronics maker for about 3.6bn (€2.66bn) in cash and stock. Flextronics fell 16 cents at 11.54.

Apple Inc.'s highly anticipated iPhone will be available June 29, according to both TV commercials broadcast last night and a company spokesman. Shares of the technology company rose 2.93, or 2.5%, to 121.33.

And Wal-Mart Stores Inc. rose 1.74, or 3.5%, to 51.21 after being upgraded by analysts at Wachovia Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.34 billion shares, compared to 1.48 billion on Friday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies was up 1.68, or 0.20%, at 855.09.