Dow Firmly Positive In Afternoon Trading, Nasdaq Little Changed

After showing a lack of direction early in the session, stocks continue to turn in a lackluster performance in afternoon trading on Monday.

The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 have spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line, although the narrower Dow has climbed firmly into positive territory.

Currently, the tech-heavy Nasdaq is nearly unchanged, up just 1.39 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 10,476.65.

The S&P 500 is up 10.91 points or 0.3 percent at 3,781.46, while the Dow is up 277.64 points or 0.9 percent at 32,680.86.

The Dow is benefiting from a strong gain by Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), with the drugstore chain surging by 3.6 percent.

The jump by Walgreens comes after an affiliate of the company VillageMD agreed to acquire Summit Health-CityMD, a leading provider of primary, specialty and urgent care, for approximately $8.9 billion.

Strong gains by Dow components Boeing (BA), Amgen (AMGN) and Salesforce (CRM) are also contributing to the advance by the blue chip index.