* Virgin America surges on buyout deal with Alaska Air
* Edwards Lifesciences up on heart-valve implant study
* Indexes down: Dow 0.06 pct, S&P 0.11 pct, Nasdaq 0.13 pct (Updates to early afternoon)
By Abhiram Nandakumar
April 4 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were largely unchanged on Monday in muted trading as investors took a breather from a recent rally that helped indexes recover from a selloff at the start of the year.
Crude hovered near one-month lows as hopes that top oil producers would reach an agreement to help tackle a stubborn global glut faded. O/R
Investors have been skittish following U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's comments last week urging caution on raising rates, which were in contrast with remarks made by some policymakers supporting more aggressive stance on rates.
The Fed is likely to raise rates before current market expectation since overseas risks to the U.S. economy are fading, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said on Monday. the Fed's projections point to two rate hikes this year, traders expect only one, according to the CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME) FedWatch program.
"We've been fairly quiet in the markets today," said Michael Baughen, global investment specialist at JP Morgan Private Bank in Tampa.
"Today's (stock market) decline is mild and doesn't have anything causing it, other than maybe a lack of catalysts."
Baughen said the market was likely to trade sideways for the rest of the week and that catalysts for stocks would come from the upcoming corporate earnings season.
A rebound in oil and encouraging economic data helped Wall Street recover from a steep selloff at the start of the year.
At 12:40 p.m. ET (1641 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 10.41 points, or 0.06 percent, at 17,782.34, the S&P 500 .SPX was down 2.19 points, or 0.11 percent, at 2,070.59 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was down 6.48 points, or 0.13 percent, at 4,908.06.
Seven of the 10 major S&P sectors were lower, led by a 0.62 percent decline in the consumer discretionary .SPLRCD sector.
Healthcare stocks' .SPXHC 1.26 percent rise helped limit losses. The sector was boosted by Edwards Lifesciences EW.N .
Shares of the medical device maker rose 20 percent to $107.65 after a study showed a less-invasive heart-valve implant was superior to open surgery, prompting a slew of brokerages to raise their ratings on the stock. America VA.O surged 42 percent to $55.28, after the airline agreed to be bought by Alaska Air ALK.N for about $2.60 billion. Alaska Air shares were down 4.8 percent at $78.10. & Wesson SWHC.O slumped 16.3 percent to $23.23 after Cowen cut its rating on the stock to "market perform". issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,980 to 957. On the Nasdaq, 1,366 issues rose and 1,351 fell.
The S&P 500 index showed 55 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 51 new highs and 17 new lows.