NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Stocks edged higher early Monday, as lower oil prices gave otherwise reluctant investors a reason to keep last week's rally going.

The Dow Jones industrial average (down 2.73 to 10,469.18, Charts), the broader Standard & Poor's 500 (up 1.19 to 1,190.47, Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (up 1.85 to 2,048.27, Charts) index all gained slightly in the early going.

A broad-based rally in four out of five sessions gave the stock market its biggest up week of the year. The advance was brought on by falling oil prices and investor confidence that inflation is contained enough that the Federal Reserve won't have to speed up the pace of its rate-hiking campaign.

While that belief may still support stocks in the near term, the rally struggled for momentum Friday and early Monday.

Early corporate news was fairly upbeat, and that provided some underlying support, as did a drop in crude oil prices.

Campbell Soup (unchanged at $30.34, Research) reported quarterly earnings and revenue early Monday that rose from a year ago and edged past analysts' estimates. Shares inched higher in the early going.

Apple Computer (up $0.78 to $38.33, Research) is in talks with Intel to use its chips in its Macintosh computer line, according to a Wall Street Journal report Monday. The report did not specify how a potential deal would impact Apple's relationship with its current supplier IBM (down $0.11 to $76.30, Research).

U.S. light crude for July delivery fell 39 cents to $48.26 a barrel in electronic trading.

Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.10 percent from 4.12 percent late Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the euro and yen, after rallying for most of last week.

COMEX gold fell 10 cents to $417.60 an ounce, tumbling with other dollar-traded commodities.

In global trade, Asian-Pacific stocks ended mixed and European shares were mixed at midday.