Wall Street is drifting ahead of key economic releases later this week. Investors appear to be holding fire before data on weekly jobs is published on Thursday followed by retail sales the day after.

One of the bright spots is American Insurance Group, which is nearly 4% higher after agreeing to sell its American Life Insurance unit to MetLife for $15.5bn in cash and stock. MetLife shares rose more than 4% on the news of the deal.

Today's announcement comes after the group agreed to sell its Asian life insurance business to Prudential for $35.5bn.

The Dow Jones is down 16 at 10,550, the Nasdaq Composite is up 5 at 2,331, while the broad-based S&P 500 is flat at 1,138.

Elsewhere, Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People's Bank of China, has hinted that China could abandon the yuan's unofficial peg to the dollar.

Speaking during the annual session of the National People's Congress on Saturday, Zhou said the dollar peg, in place since mid-2008, is a "temporary" response to the global financial crisis.

Meanwhile, the head of the International Monetary Fund said that Greece's financial woes are unlikely to spread to other eurozone countries with high debt levels.

Dominic Strauss-Kahn said "there's no reason" to expect that Spain and Portugal would need external support.

Positive sales figures helped McDonalds and mobile communications firm Sprint-Nxtel. The latter news also pushed Verizon Communications higher.

Broker BMO raised BalckBerry manufacturer Research in Motion to outperform.

Steel firms were mixed after a note from Goldman Sachs. It upgraded US Steel to buy but cut its recommendation for AK Steel to neutral making it the worst performer on the S&P.

Health insurers, including Unitedhealth Group, have been falling after negative comments by President Obama.

Shares in Kraft Foods fell after it announced the cancellation of Cadbury's listing.


S&P 500 - Risers
Sprint Nxtel Corp. (S) $3.45 +5.18%
MetLife Inc. (MET) $40.58 +4.27%
American International Group Inc. (AIG) $29.08 +3.56%
Sempra Energy (SRE) $51.47 +3.51%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $65.42 +2.75%
BMC Software Inc. (BMC) $38.74 +2.73%
Darden Restaurants (DRI) $42.07 +2.66%
Frontier Communications Company (FTR) $7.49 +2.46%
Office Depot Inc. (ODP) $7.59 +2.43%
Visa Inc (V) $90.63 +2.40%

S&P 500 - Fallers
A K Steel Holdings Corp. (AKS) $23.99 -3.58%
Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) $47.81 -2.88%
Cons Energy Inc. (CNX) $53.52 -2.78%
Reynolds American (RAI) $53.22 -2.78%
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) $25.67 -2.43%
Ameren Corp. (AEE) $25.35 -2.27%
Cameron International Corp. (CAM) $43.45 -2.21%
Invesco Ads (IVZ) $20.90 -2.15%
Unitedhealth Group (UNH) $33.10 -1.90%
Precision Castparts (PCP) $118.07 -1.86%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $65.42 +2.75%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $25.69 +1.90%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $29.60 +1.27%
AT&T Inc. (T) $25.25 +1.04%
Du Pont E I De Nemours and Co. (DD) $35.15 +0.51%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $31.96 +0.50%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $28.68 +0.32%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $64.22 +0.28%
Bank Of America Corp. (BAC) $16.73 +0.18%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $74.31 +0.01%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $17.30 -1.04%
3M Co. (MMM) $81.63 -0.98%
American Express Inc. (AXP) $39.81 -0.97%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $37.16 -0.88%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $58.77 -0.78%
Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) $29.12 -0.75%
Boeing Co. (BA) $67.50 -0.64%
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) $51.72 -0.60%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $126.50 -0.59%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $54.45 -0.46%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) $73.12 +5.21%
BMC Software Inc. (BMC) $38.74 +2.73%
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) $69.19 +2.14%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $25.69 +1.90%
Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) $33.93 +1.83%
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $530.20 +1.81%
Network Appliance Inc. (NTAP) $32.63 +1.81%
Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) $16.34 +1.74%
Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) $45.38 +1.73%
Priceline.Com Inc. (PCLN) $239.37 +1.71%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Warner Chilcott Plc (WCRX) $27.39 -2.42%
Logitech International S.A. (LOGI) $16.15 -2.30%
Liberty Media Corp. Interactive Class A (LINTA) $13.23 -1.78%
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Ads (TEVA) $60.58 -1.75%
Virgin Media Inc. (VMED) $16.70 -1.63%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $16.92 -1.46%
Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) $46.93 -1.43%
First Solar Inc. (FSLR) $107.38 -1.14%
Staples Inc. (SPLS) $23.03 -1.12%
Nii Holdings Inc. (NIHD) $39.04 -1.09%

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