By Lucas Iberico Lozada
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Monday as fears that a leftist victory in Greece would bring fresh crisis to the Eurozone were offset by a slight recovery in energy stocks.
The leftist, anti-bailout Syriza party won decisively in Greek parliamentary elections on Sunday, after running a campaign promising to take on Greece's international lenders and bring about an end to austerity measures.
While the United States has limited direct exposure to Greece's relatively small economy, extended volatility in the region could hurt multinational companies.
"There was a lot of trepidation in the market going into the Greek election ... but by this morning the Syriza win was priced into the market already," said Robert Francello, head of equity trading for Apex Capital in San Francisco.
At 1:58 p.m. (1858 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average rose 15.09 points, or 0.09 percent, to 17,687.69, the S&P 500 gained 4.98 points, or 0.24 percent, to 2,056.8 and the Nasdaq Composite added 13.75 points, or 0.29 percent, to 4,771.63.
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In deal news, Rock-Tenn Co and MeadWestvaco Corp said they would combine to form a packaging company worth $16 billion, with MeadWestvaco shareholders owning a majority stake.
Rock-Tenn shares jumped 6.7 percent to $67.19 while MeadWestvaco rose 14.5 percent to $51.59 as the S&P 500's biggest percentage gainer.
D.R. Horton Inc climbed 4.9 percent to $24.25 after the homebuilder's revenue growth beat expectations, boosted by home deliveries. An index of homebuilder stocks rose 1.5 percent.
AT&T shares were 0.5 percent lower to $33.19 after the company announced it would acquire bankrupt NII Holding Inc's wireless business in Mexico for $1.875 billion.
Chevron led gains in the S&P, adding some 1.6 percent to $108.57, followed closely by peer Exxon Mobil, which added 0.6 percent to $91.43.
With 19 percent of S&P 500 companies having reported earnings, 71.6 percent have topped expectations, while 54.7 percent have beaten revenue forecasts, according to Thomson Reuters data. That compares with the long-term average of 63 percent for earnings and 61 percent for revenue.
Ocwen Financial Corp jumped 13 percent to $7.19 after the company paid $2.5 million in penalties to the California Department of Business Oversight, which had threatened to suspend Ocwen's license to operate in the state. About 32 million Ocwen shares exchanged hands, making it one of the New York Stock Exchange's most active.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,946 to 1,049, for a 1.86-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,691 issues rose and 977 fell for a 1.73-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.
The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 30 new 52-week highs and 7 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 70 new highs and 44 new lows.
(Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica)