Bulls ready to run again

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks were poised to continue their recent run Monday on a rash of merger news.

Futures were higher in early trading, as stocks look to build on the narrow gains that gave the Dow another record high close and left the S&P 500 at highest point since late 2000. That broader blue chip index is nearing its record high as well.

Investment guru Warren Buffett said Sunday that his company, Berkshire Hathaway (Charts), was open to making what he called a "huge" acquisition, but said the right opportunity has yet to come along. He also announced he might hire up to four people to succeed him as chief investment officer of Berkshire Hathaway

His company also reported higher first-quarter earnings and saw shareholders at the company's annual meeting overwhelmingly reject a proposal to divest its $3.31 billion stake in PetroChina due to human rights issues.

Two unsolicited deals ran into trouble over the weekend as members of the Ottaway family, who control 6 percent of the voting shares of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones (Charts), joined the Bancroft family, who control 52 percent of shares, in voicing opposition to the proposed $5 billion takeover by News Corp. (Charts, Fortune 500)

And ABN Amro (Charts) rejected the $24 billion bid for its LaSalle Bank unit from a group led by Royal Bank of Scotland. ABN had previously agreed to sell the Chicago-based bank for $21 billion to Bank of America (Charts, Fortune 500).

"Spider-Man 3" has sold an estimated $375 million worth of tickets worldwide since its opening, setting a box office record for Columbia Pictures, a unit of media and electronics conglomerate Sony (Charts).

Shares of Sony closed up 2.3 percent on the news, helping to lift the Nikkei in trading Monday. Markets in Asia closed mostly higher as well, while major index in Europe were mixed, with the Paris CAC flat after the presidential election there, German stocks higher and markets in London closed for a holiday.

Oil prices were slightly lower in early trading. U.S. light crude edged down 15 cents to $61.78 a barrel in electronic trading.

Treasury prices were lower, taking the yield on the 10-year note to 4.65 percent from the 4.64 percent level reached late Friday after the government's April jobs report. The dollar was lower against the yen and the euro.