Stocks struggle for direction

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Major indexes turned narrowly mixed Monday following last week's brutal selloff, as investors weighed lower oil prices and persistent credit market fears.

The Dow Jones industrial average (Charts) gained 0.3 percent an hour into the session.

The broader S&P 500 index (Charts) rose 0.1 percent, while the tech-fueled Nasdaq (Charts) lost 0.3 percent.

Helping to buoy Wall Street sentiment were sharply lower oil prices. Light, sweet crude for December fell $2.52 to $93.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Monday, on reports that OPEC would discuss increasing its output at an upcoming meeting.

Investors again faced more troubling news at the start of Monday's session, this time from the British banking giant HSBC (Charts). The Wall Street Journal said the firm could boost its reserves against subprime loan losses by $2.4 billion to a total $4.5 billion. The Times of London reported that the big bank will report more than $1 billion in subprime mortgage-related losses when it reports its quarterly results for its U.S. division Wednesday.

And shares of E-Trade Financial Corp. (Charts) plunged 53 percent Monday on the New York Stock Exchange after it warned late Friday that the deteriorating value of its mortgage-backed securities may force it to take significant writedowns in the fourth quarter.

Last week, major indexes were hit hard after a round of writedowns from Wall Street's biggest banks reignited credit market fears. The 30-stock Dow industrials fell 4.1 percent, while the S&P fell 3.7 percent and the Nasdaq dropped 6.9 percent.

With no economic reports slated for release, investors were also focused on the corporate front.

Blackstone Group (Charts) posted a net loss in the most recent quarter Monday, hurt by compensation charges. Blackstone shares slipped over 7 percent on the news, even though it reported higher revenue in its core private equity business, helped by higher fees.

International Business Machines (Charts, Fortune 500) announced Monday it agreed to purchase the business software maker Cognos Inc. (Charts) for about $5 billion.

Tyson Foods (Charts, Fortune 500), the world's largest meat processor, turned a profit in its quarterly results, helped by cost-cutting measures. But shares of the company fell nearly 5 percent after it issued forecasts below analysts' expectations.

Treasury markets were closed for the Veterans Day holiday.

Gold prices tumbled after last week's big run-up, as COMEX gold for December fell $26.70 to $808 an ounce.

Overseas, major markets in Asia finished sharply lower on mounting concerns about the subprime mortgage fallout. In Europe, stocks were mixed in midday trade.

The dollar rebounded against the euro but was lower versus the yen.