Markets closed last week with mixed results on Wall Street. The NASDAQ closed Friday with a 0.04 percent (0.81 points) gain, but both the Dow Jones (0.56 percent, 57.59 points) and the S&P 500 (0.37 percent, 3.94 points) dropped significantly on the day.

Investors last week were split between their worries about the economy getting worse, and their enthusiasm about large corporations making more money.

According to CNNMoney.com, the enthusiasm seems poised to win out during the morning session today. The unemployment situation is getting worse, GDP is stagnant, and the fiscal state of the U.S. Treasury continues to get worse and worse. Luckily for investors, the world’s largest and most profitable corporations are still making profits despite the rest of the economy, including their employees, being forced to make due with less.

MarketWatch reports that merger and acquisition data is pushing investors toward gains today. First came the attempt from BHP Billiton to acquire Potash Corp. last week. Now, Hewlett-Packard is looking to out-gun rival Dell by acquiring the services of 3PAR Inc.

According to Reuters, BHP’s hostile takeover bid – valued at $39 billion – has sparked interest from other parties as well. Potash, a Canadian firm, has fielded offers from BHP (Australia), Vale (Brazil), and Sinochem (China) in the last week. Investors are happy to see this kind of movement out of major corporations. It should be noted that no American companies are in the bidding.

In other news, according to Bloomberg, a former chief economist with the International Monetary Fund is calling on the Federal Reserve to act immediately in brining interest rates back up to reasonable levels.

Raghuram Rajan is concerned that chairman Bernanke’s lack of consideration for the long-term problems created by our “free money” scheme will hurt the U.S. down the road. At he sees it, with rates sitting at near zero for so long the economy is simply recreating old bubbles and helping to prop up new ones.

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