US stocks little changed in early trading as market comes off biggest gain in two months

Stock indexes are little changed in early trading Monday as investors monitored developments in Greece's latest bid for financial support. Markets in the U.S. are coming off their best day in two months.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average slipped a point to 18,190 as of 10:06 a.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose a point to 2,117. The Nasdaq composite gained 12 points, or 0.2 percent, to 5,015.

OIL DEAL: Noble Energy agreed to buy Rosetta Resources for about $2.1 billion in stock. The deal gives the oil and gas company access to two massive Texas shale formations, immediately boosting its earnings. Noble Energy fell $2.38, or 4.8 percent, to $46.74.

SOLID EARNINGS: Better-than-expected quarterly results sent shares in Actavis and Dean Foods higher. Actavis rose $10.84, or 3.7 percent, to $303.71, while Dean Foods gained $1.19, or 7.3 percent, to $17.47.

EUROPEAN ACTION: Markets in Europe were mixed as hopes for an imminent deal on a bailout for Greece dimmed. European finance ministers were meeting Monday in an attempt to hammer out a deal that would provide Greece with funds to make a big debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday. A debt default would destabilize Greece, potentially causing it to fall out of the eurozone. France's CAC 40 was down 1.2 percent, while Germany's DAX shed 0.5 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 edged up 0.2 percent.

ASIA SCORECARD: The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 3 percent after the People's Bank of China cut interest rates for the third time in half a year, the central bank's latest bid to shore up sputtering economic growth. Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.3 percent, while South Korea's Kospi gained 0.6 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.5 percent.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell 16 cents to $59.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

BONDS: U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.19 percent from 2.15 percent late Friday.

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AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong contributed to this report.