NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
A number of high-profile deals and a continued wave of buying extended from the previous week were among the factors giving stocks a slight boost early Monday.
Five minutes into the new trading session, the Dow Jones industrial average (up 23.93 to 10619.48, Charts), the Nasdaq composite (up 6.40 to 2054.03, Charts) and the Standard & Poor's 500 (up 1.60 to 1158.46, Charts) index all inched higher.
The major indexes managed to eke out gains at the end of a tumultuous week, and that momentum seemed to carry over to early trading Monday.
Among the session's big deals, BellSouth (BLS: up $0.16 to $29.00, Research, Estimates) said it would sell its Latin American assets to Spain's Telefonica (TEF: up $0.08 to $49.09, Research, Estimates) for $5.85 billion.
Shares of Dow component Eastman Kodak (EK: down $0.64 to $27.15, Research, Estimates) fell after the company said that its purchase of two digital printing operations -- Nexpress Solutions and Heidelberg Digital from German firm Heidelberger Druckmaschinen -- would negatively impact its 2004 earnings per share, although it will add to its revenue.
Also of interest to investors, shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO: down $1.05 to $9.81, Research, Estimates), which fell in early trade one session after the company's namesake founder was found guilty on all four counts in her criminal trial.
Treasury prices rallied, with the 10-year note adding 1/2 of a point in price, pushing its yield down to 3.79 percent from 3.85 percent late Friday. The dollar edged up versus the yen and euro.
Among commodities markets, Brent crude oil futures rose 8 cents to $33.43 a barrel in London. COMEX gold fell $2.20 to $399.40 an ounce.
Asian stocks closed mixed Monday. European markets rallied at midday there.
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