Stocks Start Higher before Read on Manufacturing

U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday, extending weekly gains, as investors looked to a final reading on U.S. manufacturing activity in March. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately added 44.34 points, or 0.27%, at 16,347.11. The S&P 500 gained 0.71 point, or 0.04%, at 1,867.23. The Nasdaq Composite was down 18.96 points, or 0.44%, at 4,257.83.

Apple Inc is in talks with Comcast Corp to enter into a deal for a streaming-television service that would allow Apple set-top boxes to bypass congestion on the web, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Nutrition and weight-loss company Herbalife Ltd said it had agreed to allow three more representatives of billionaire investor Carl Icahn to join its board, sending the company’s shares up as much as 9 percent before the bell.

JPMorgan Chase & Co’s (JPM) chief executive for China investment banking, Fang Fang, will leave the firm, according to an internal memo – a departure that comes amid a probe of JPMorgan hiring practices in Asia.

Brazil economists raised their 2014 key rate and inflation forecasts, after dry weather caused food prices to surge in the world’s second-largest emerging market. Brazil’s inflation will accelerate to 6.28 percent this year, compared with the previous week’s forecast of 6.11 percent, according to the March 21 central bank survey of about 100 analysts published today.