Techs manage gains

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Technology shares rose Monday afternoon, livening up an otherwise mixed market as investors weighed a spate of merger and acquisition news with the latest problems for the subprime mortgage lenders.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 22.52 to 12,298.84, Charts) added a few points with roughly 2 hours left in the session, while the broader S&P 500 (up 0.71 to 1,403.56, Charts) index hovered near unchanged. The tech-heavy Nasdaq (up 6.89 to 2,394.44, Charts) composite gained 0.3 percent.

Stocks rose last week, as investors recovered a bit from the previous week's selloff. But the new week started on a tentative note, as investors weighed competing influences at the start of a busy week for economic news. Reports due later in the week include retail sales, producer and consumer prices and manufacturing.

"Basically, we're in a holding pattern right now," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners. "The impact of what happened a few weeks ago is behind us, and the market is trying to consolidate."

Cardillo said that stocks were also a little choppy because of the worries about subprime and because Friday is a quadruple witching day. The quarterly event in which stock futures and options and stock index futures and options all expire simultaneously can cause gyrations in the underlying issues.

Select technology shares gained, with Apple (up $1.58 to $89.55, Charts), Oracle (up $0.35 to $16.98, Charts), Intel (up $0.35 to $19.45, Charts) and Yahoo! (up $0.85 to $29.97, Charts) all managing gains.

Monday brought a number of merger announcements, but the news was countered by new worries about subprime mortgage lenders.

New Century Financial (Charts) said its lenders have cut off its financing, in the latest blow to the mortgage lender to people with less than top credit. The New York Stock Exchange delayed opening trading for the stock and later announced that it was considering suspending trading.

In addition, Countrywide Financial (down $1.21 to $34.89, Charts) said it expects some short-term earnings volatility due to events in the subprime mortgage lending market. Shares slumped about 3 percent.

Other financial companies exposed to subprime mortgage lending slumped as well. Accredited Home Lending (down $3.81 to $11.97, Charts) lost 21 percent, Fremont General (down $1.35 to $6.68, Charts) lost 13 percent and Novastar Financial (down $0.68 to $4.56, Charts) lost 12 percent.

Among the deals announced: Schering Plough (down $0.14 to $23.71, Charts) is buying Akzo Nobel's drug unit for $14.4 billion in cash.

Dollar General (up $4.38 to $21.16, Charts) has agreed to be taken private by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. in a $7.3 billion cash and debt deal.

UnitedHealth Group (down $0.04 to $52.96, Charts) said it was buying Sierra Health Services for $2.6 billion in cash.

In addition, Ford Motor (up $0.02 to $7.95, Charts) said it was selling its luxury Aston Martin line for $925 million.

Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, advancers beat decliners eight to seven on volume of 900 million shares. On the Nasdaq, winners barely topped losers as 1 billion shares traded hands.

U.S. light crude oil for April delivery fell 90 cents to $59.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for April delivery fell $1.50 to $650.50 an ounce.

Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 4.55 percent from 4.58 percent late Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the yen and the euro.

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