NEW YORK: US stocks edged higher on Monday on hopes for a strong corporate earnings season, while crude oil prices retreated on prospects of a Libyan peace agreement.
Aluminum maker Alcoa will mark the unofficial start of the quarterly earnings season when it reports its earnings after the market's close on Monday. Optimism about earnings helped offset concerns about Japan, which suffered another strong aftershock and expanded the evacuation zone around its crippled nuclear plant.
The yen rebounded from an 11-month low against the euro and a 2-1/2 year trough versus the Australian dollar, after the latest earthquake, with a magnitude 6.6, prompted some investors to unwind riskier bets often funded by cheap borrowing in the Japanese currency.
"The good news for bulls as we enter earnings season is that expectations appear to be low," said Todd Salamone, senior vice president of research at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 42.46 points, or 0.34 percent, at 12,421.68. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 1.96 points, or 0.15 percent, at 1,330.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index was off 3.65 points, or 0.13 percent at 2776.95.
World stocks as measured by MSCI were flat, with emerging markets off 0.5 percent.
Although the world economy is fairly robust, there are growing expectations among investors that accompanying higher commodity prices will drive up inflation and prompt central banks to tighten monetary policy sooner.
European stocks fell The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down slightly.
Brent crude oil earlier fell by more than $1 on Monday to below $125 but has since retraced some of its losses moving above $126 a barrel and U.S. crude futures slipped under $112, giving back some ground after Friday's strong rally.
The African Union said Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had accepted a roadmap to end the civil war in Libya, including an immediate ceasefire, but an opposition representative said it would only work if Gaddafi left power.
ICE Brent crude for May was last down 57 cents at $126.09 a barrel after hitting an intraday low of $124.69 a barrel, down almost $2. U.S. crude for May delivery fell 74 cents to $112.05 a barrel.
YEN GAINS
The euro touched its highest against the yen since May 2010 of 123.33 yen on trading platform EBS. It later gave up gains and was last down 0.5 percent at 122.13 yen.
Traders said speculator positioning and some technical indicators suggested that recent rallies in the euro and the Australian dollar against the yen could pause in the short run, with the latest in a series of quakes being used by some to book profits.
The euro fell 0.2 percent versus the dollar to $1.4450 having hit a 15-month high of $1.4489 on Friday.
The dollar rebounded after steep losses on Friday, as the U.S. government averted a potential shutdown, although analysts said the focus on the debt ceiling debate could limit the greenback's gains.
"We're having some sort of relief rally after the U.S. government did not shut down as feared," said David Watt, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto.
Expectations of another rise in European Central Bank interest rates by July kept the euro close to recent highs and pushed euro zone government bond prices lower.
German Bund yields briefly rose above 3.5 percent from the first time since August 2009.
The ECB raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points last week to 1.25 percent, the first hike since 2008, and used language suggesting that another rise is in the pipeline.-Reuters
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