Stocks shut reasonably lower on Monday in an essentially indolent session that witnessed the major equity indices surrender early gains in the event of a new round of acquisition and merger news.

Both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded near the flat line for a majority of the day before diminishing off late, whereas the Nasdaq was for most of the session in the negative. In the nonexistence of any new economic data, investors had precious little to consider except Hewlett Packard's(HPQ) verdict to head into a bidding conflict with Dell(DELL) for 3Par(PAR), and were eventually less than awed by this latest proof that consolidation is on the up.

Stocks had been up earlier in the session as the market initially took increased deal activity as a sign that companies are getting more confident to use their cash. However, as they mulled it over, investors reached the conclusion an increase in mergers and acquisitions won't necessarily alleviate the concerns of high unemployment and sluggish consumer spending. The deal activity could even add to the economic weakness as companies tend to follow mergers with layoffs.

Hewlett Packard leapt in earlier on Monday with what it described as a "superior" offer to acquire 3Par, a manufacturer of storage technology, for $1.6 billion, or $24 a share in cash. The bid is way ahead of the $18 a share offer that Dell made the previous week. HP shares dropped 2% to $39.04 whereas 3Par's stock soared 44.4% to $26.05. Dell's stock was down by 1.1% at $11.94.

Jay Suskind, senior vice president at Duncan Williams said, "Certainly you'd expect markets to get a pop from all the recent M&A activity because it signals that companies that are healthy and companies that are flush with cash feel that it's a good time to part with some of that cash and pick up companies that they perceive as cheap. So it's a pretty bullish sign for the future.”