(Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged higher on Monday as merger activity and solid earnings, including Exxon Mobil, overshadowed concerns about the possible spread of unrest in Egypt to other parts of the Middle East. Stocks held gains even after bellwether Intel Corp fell 1.7 percent to $21.09 after cutting its first-quarter revenue forecast by $300 million due to costs for correcting a design flaw in one of its chips.

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(Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) reported a better-than-expected 53 percent increase in quarterly profit, helped by a lower tax rate and a surge in natural gas production in the United States and Qatar. Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, also saw its results lifted by higher profits in its chemicals and refining units. A recovering global economy has sparked a bigger appetite for chemicals and fuels including diesel and gasoline.

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(Reuters) - Intel Corp cut its first-quarter revenue forecast by $300 million on Monday because of costs associated with correcting a design flaw it discovered in one of its chips. Intel said it had stopped shipments of the chip, which is used in PCs with the company's latest generation Sandy Bridge processors, and had implemented a fix. It estimated the total cost to repair and replace the chip at about $700 million.

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(Reuters) - AMB Property Corp has struck a deal to buy rival ProLogis for $5.7 billion in stock, combining the two largest U.S. owners of warehouse and distribution centers around the world in one of the biggest real-estate deals since the financial crisis. The deal comes as ProLogis, the larger of the two companies, has been struggling with a mountain of debt. The new company initially will be run jointly by the current chief executives of AMB and ProLogis; AMB CEO Hamid Moghadam will become sole CEO at the end of 2012. The company will be based in San Francisco, home to AMB.

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(Reuters) - Chrysler Group LLC forecast a profit for 2011 ahead of an initial public offering set for the second half of the year, and the launch of new vehicle models intended to spur its recovery. Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne has said the company plans to report a "couple" quarters of net income before its expected IPO this year. The automaker managed by Fiat SpA, on Monday projected net income between $200 million and $500 million for 2011. It expects its 2011 revenue to jump by nearly one-third to $55 billion.

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(Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending rose more than expected in December to post the sixth straight month of gains as households drew down on their savings to fund purchases, government data showed on Monday. The Commerce Department said spending increased 0.7 percent after rising by 0.3 percent in November. Economists polled by Reuters had expected spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, to increase 0.5 percent last month.

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(Reuters) - The World Trade Organization handed a report to U.S. and EU officials on Monday, which industry sources said found that plane manufacturer Boeing received billions of dollars in unfair subsidies from the U.S. government. The report by WTO experts marked the latest stage in a dispute between the United States and the European Union over unfair and illegal support for each other's aircraft industry in a market for large passenger aircraft worth more than $1.7 trillion.

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(Reuters) - Support is gaining ground in the euro zone for giving Greece more time to pay back its EU bailout to avoid default and ease the worst-indebted EU state's debt burden, although details still have to be pinned down. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, whose country is pivotal to any solution as Europe's strongest economy, did not rule out a radical reprofiling of Greek debt in a television interview broadcast on Sunday evening.

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(Reuters) - Stocks fell on Friday as weak corporate results, including Ford's, offset data showing the U.S. economic expansion gathered speed in the fourth quarter. After a nearly one-hour delay, Nasdaq resumed publishing quotes for its main stock indexes, including the Nasdaq composite, after a data feed glitch.

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(Reuters) - Senior investment banking executives at Bank of America Corp will likely see as much as 80 percent of their 2010 bonuses in stock, but the cash portion will be higher than what was paid out last year, said a source familiar with the company's pay plans. The bonus payments are the first since the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, pay restrictions were lifted last year. But they still reflect a new climate around compensation, as payouts have not returned to the more cash-heavy mixes paid before the financial crisis.

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