Russell opens slightly lower

Small-cap stocks edged slightly lower in early trading, with the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) down 1.09, or 0.15%, at 720.79 at 10:00 a.m. ET.

The market found support into the opening on news that Mars Inc. and Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK) were acquiring Wrigley (NYSE:WWY) for a reported $22 billion to $23 billion. Buffet said his stake was $6.5 billion and that he was acting as a financing agent for the deal. From a broad market standpoint, merger and acquisition activity helps suggest that the worst of the credit crunch may be in the market’s rear view mirror. Wrigley shares were up about 28% on the opening.

In addition, Kirk Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. said it would purchase 20 million shares of Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) at $8.50 a share, which was up $1 from Friday’s close. Ford shares were up about 9% after the opening.

It was interesting that the market was not initially higher in the wake of this morning’s news, but it’s possible that any boost from the M&A news could be dulled at this stage because of the big economic risk still ahead of traders this week. Wednesday serves up first quarter preliminary GDP, otherwise known as part of the “official recession” question, and then we’ll also have an FOMC announcement Wednesday . . .

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