NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Falling oil prices and strong earnings from the drugmakers were among the factors boosting stocks Monday morning.

The Dow Jones industrial average (Charts), the S&P 500 (Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (Charts) all gained in the early going.

U.S. light crude oil for December delivery slumped 90 cents to $59.73 a barrel in electronic trading. The price dropped as Gulf Coast facilities managed to avoid the fallout from Hurricane Wilma.

The slide in oil prices supported stocks in the morning, as did the morning's corporate news.

Gains were broad-based, with 24 out of 30 Dow issues gaining.

In earnings news, Merck (up $0.19 to $26.37, Research) reported higher quarterly earnings that rose from a year earlier with lower costs tempering the impact of its withdrawn arthritis treatment Vioxx. Shares of the Dow component were slightly higher.

Fellow drugmaker Schering-Plough (up $0.33 to $21.44, Research) also reported higher quarterly earnings that topped estimates, due to strong demand for its prescription drugs. Shares gained over 1 percent.

In other news, Cendant (up $0.16 to $20.25, Research) said it will split itself up into four publicly-traded companies by 2006.

Treasury prices were little changed, with the yield on the 10-year note at 4.40 percent, down from 4.41 percent late Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The dollar fell against the euro and yen.

COMEX gold fell $1.90 to $467.20 an ounce.

In global trade, major Asian markets ended higher and European bourses rose at midday.