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Stocks were little changed early Monday as investors mulled a report showing a jump in Chinese exports, a weaker dollar and a rise in commodities.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) added a few points in the early going. The S&P 500 index (SPX) gained 2 points, or 0.2%. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) was little changed.
Philip Isherwood, equities strategist at Evolution Securities in London, said traders were ignoring last week's negative payroll report and were reacting, in part, to positive data from China about the strength of its import-export economy. Also, investors have positive expectations about the fourth-quarter corporate reports, which begin later Monday with Alcoa.
"You'd expect to have a reasonable number out of them," he said, in reference to the corporate reports. "You'd obviously want to have a bit more revenue than cost cutting in that mix."
Stocks gained slightly Friday, propelled by a tech rally, as investors shrugged off a surprisingly weak jobs report amid other recent signs that the economy appears to be stabilizing.
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Companies: Investors will be waiting for Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500), the first of the Dow components to report fourth-quarter figures, after the market close. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the aluminum maker to report a profit of 6 cents a shares, compared to a loss of 28 cents a share in the final quarter of 2008.
Later this week, Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) post quarterly figures.
Earnings of S&P 500 companies are expected to have jumped 213% in the fourth quarter of 2009, thanks to easy comparisons to the year-earlier period, the worst quarter in the history of earnings tracker Thomson Reuters.
World markets: Asian markets ended higher and European markets gained at midday.
Commodities and the dollar: The dollar tumbled versus the euro and the yen.
Dollar-traded gold inched higher. COMEX gold for February delivery rose $15 to $1,154.90 an ounce. Gold closed at an all-time high of $1,218.30 an ounce last month.
U.S. light crude oil for February delivery rose 50 cents to $83.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Bonds: Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 3.80% from 3.83% late Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
