The New York equities markets had a positive day on Monday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.1 percent to 10,570.53, the S&P 500 ended the day with an increase of 0.2 percent to 1,221.79, and the Nasdaq index rose by 0.3 percent to 2,141.44.

The news was not good for everyone, however, as Merck continued its slide begun Friday with the announcement of a jury verdict against the company in the case of a man who died after taking their pain killer Vioxx. Merck dropped 0.6 percent to $27.89, bringing its two-day decline to nearly 8.3 percent.

In the semiconductor sector, Texas Instruments gained 2.5 percent to $31.95 and Intel added 1.6 percent to $26.06. Many of the gains on the day came in relation to news on mergers and acquisitions.

Canadian-owned oil producer PetroKazakhstan gained 18.4 percent to $53.75 after it accepted an offer by the China National Petroleum Corporation, which offered $55 per share for the company.

Shares in Evetech Pharmaceuticals gained 29.6 percent to $18.13 after OSI Pharmaceuticals agreed to purchase Evetech for around $935 million. The purchase didn’t help OSI, however, which saw its shares declined by 21.7 percent to $31.92.

The news that Maytag and Whirlpool had signed a formal agreement for Whirlpool to acquire Maytag did not help shares in those companies, either. Maytag lost 0.1 percent to $18.69 and Whirlpool declined by 0.4 percent to $81.48.