Stocks drift after a three-day slump; Lilly falls

FILE - In this April 7, 2014 file photo, trader Anthony Riccio, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The sell-off in global markets dragged into Tuesday following another Nasdaq-inspired retreat on Wall Street and as investors fretted over the rise in tensions in eastern Ukraine. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are drifting mostly higher in early trading on Wall Street as the market stabilizes after a three-day slump.

Investors will start to focus on company earnings this week. Aluminum maker Alcoa reports earnings after the close of trading Tuesday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose three points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,848 in the first few minutes of trading. Energy stocks and companies that make basic materials rose the most.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 10 points, less than 0.1 percent, to 16,256.

The Nasdaq composite rose 15 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,094.

Eli Lilly fell 1 percent after a U.S. jury ordered Lilly and the Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical to pay $9 billion in damages over a diabetes medicine linked to cancer.