Wall St. Treads Water Amid Corporate Deals

(AP)  Updated 4:30 p.m. ET

Stocks ended mixed after a new round of mergers and acquisitions raised some hope for the economy.

Financial shares rose after insurer American International Group Inc. reached a deal to sell one of its major foreign divisions to MetLife Inc. for $15.5 billion. MetLife had confirmed last month it was in talks with AIG to buy the unit known as Alico.

It's the second major sale AIG has made this month as part of its plans to trim operations, shed assets and repay more than $100 billion in government bailout money it received during the credit crisis.

Also, Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina offered to buy Australia's Arrow Energy Ltd. for $3 billion in cash and stock. Royal Dutch Shell already owns a 10 percent stake in Arrow's international business.

Meanwhile, health care stocks fell after President Barack Obama called for passage of health care legislation.

The modest moves in the overall market follow a jump in stocks Friday. The government's February jobs report was stronger than expected.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 13.68, or 0.1 percent, to 10,552.52. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 0.20, or less than 0.1 percent, to 1,138.50. That breaks a streak of six straight advances.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 5.86, or 0.3 percent, to 2,332.21, its highest close since September 2008.

[skeezix06]

Who cares about them. Let them sink out of sight.

[rightbehind]

They're bargaining to ship more US jobs to third world countries. The country would be better off if wallstreet was boarded up.