Wall St. mixed at open; energy shares fall

(Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes were mixed on Monday after strong jobs report on Friday showed the U.S. economy was picking up steam, but energy shares fell as crude prices slipped on signs that U.S. shale oil production was recovering.

U.S. light crude was down after rising for eight straight weeks, the longest winning stretch since early 2013.

Six of the 10 major S&P 500 sectors were up, but the energy index <.SPNY> was down 1.54 percent in early trading.

Exxon Mobil shares fell 1.1 percent to $87.28.

"There will be some carry-over from the positive jobs report but not at the same magnitude," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

At 9:51 a.m. ET (1351 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 4.73 points, or 0.03 percent, at 18,186.38, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was up 0.86 points, or 0.04 percent, at 2,116.96, just shy of its all-time high.

The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was up 9.44 points, or 0.19 percent, at 5,012.98.

European markets were under pressure as euro zone finance ministers met to discuss a cash-for-reforms deal for Greece, while Asian shares rose as investors cheered China's third rate cut in six months.

Rosetta Resources soared 28.6 percent to $24.85 after Noble Energy said it would buy the company for about $2 billion in an all-stock deal. Noble shares down 5.3 percent at $46.53.

"This is a fertile environment for M&A activity, where low cost to capital is probably going to pull forward more deals," said Luschini.

Mergers and acquisitions this year reached their highest first-quarter level since 2007 with announced deals worth a total of $811.8 billion in the quarter, up 21 percent year-on-year, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Zulily shares jumped 12.2 percent to $14.95 after Alibaba bought a 9 percent stake in the online retailer. Alibaba was down 0.3 percent at $86.77.

Actavis rose 3.6 percent to $303.28 after the drugmaker's revenue jumped almost 60 percent, helped by higher sales of its branded drugs in North America.

Dish Network fell 1.5 percent to $65.85 as it lost subscribers in the latest quarter.

Go Daddy rose 3.4 percent to $25.75 after its lock-up period expired, while Etsy fell 10 percent to $20.42 after Wedbush Securities downgraded it to "underperform" from "neutral."

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,486 to 1,253, for a 1.19-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,475 issues rose and 868 fell for a 1.70-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.

The benchmark S&P 500 index showed 13 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 31 new highs and 13 new lows.

(Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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