With Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke set to give a speech in Jackson Hole, Wyo., later this week, and Labor Day just a week away, Monday’s sluggish results were a good reflection of the standoffish market.

In very light trading, the Dow Jones fell 0.25% to 13,124, the S&P 500 fell fractionally to 1,410, and the Nasdaq rallied 0.11% to finish up at 3,073.

But not every investor was sitting around waiting for something to happen …

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) won a patent lawsuit against  Samsung on late Friday, with a California jury finding that Samsung had infringed upon six Apple patents — and recommended an award of more than $1 billion in damages. On Monday, the news lifted Apple stock to yet another historic high as it briefly touched $680 per share before settling in for a nearly 2% gain to $675 per share.

AOL (NYSE:AOL) announced it would pay out a $5.15 (15%) special dividend and upped a share repurchase program to $600 million as the company continues to rebate money obtained in a $1.1 billion patent sale to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Shares of AOL climbed more than 3% on the news.

Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) founder and former CEO Richard Schulze was given permission to look at the company’s books and assemble his partners and financiers for a formal bid during the next 60 days. Share rose over 4% on the day to just over $18 per share — still well below the $24-$26 range Schulze suggested in his opening foray in July.

IBM (NYSE:IBM) announced it will purchase employee management software maker Kenexa (NYSE:KNXA) for about $1.26 billion, or $46 per share — a 40% premium — to enhance its social business and human resources business services team. IBM slipped marginally on the news.

Also getting into the M&A game, auto rental giant Hertz Global (NYSE:HTZ) said Sunday it was buying rival Dollar Thrifty (NYSE:DTG) in a deal valued at $2.3 billion. Hertz will pay $87.50 per share in cash — roughly 8% better than Friday’s closing price for DTG — through a tender offer for Dollar Thrifty stock. Shares of Hertz finished up 8% Monday.

Finally, luxury retailer Tiffany (NYSE:TIF) rose more than 7% after announcing second-quarter earnings and revenues that beat last year’s results, though they fell short of analyst expectation.

Three Up

• Nokia (NYSE:NOK): Up 5.8% (18 cents) to $3.26 (read more here).
• M&T Bank (NYSE:MTB): Up 4.6% ($3.96) to $89.83 (read more here).
• Blue Nile (NASDAQ:NILE): Up 3.4% ($1.25) to $38.38.

Three Down

• Angie’s List (NASDAQ:ANGI): Down 6.9% (67 cents) to $9.02.
• Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA): 6.4% (21 cents) to $3.06.
• Kayak (NASDAQ:KYAK): Down 4.1% ($1.19) to $27.60.

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he was long AAPL, MSFT and AOL.