Stocks headed for a narrowly mixed open Monday as oil prices set a new trading record and investors awaited a regional manufacturing reading for hints about where the market might be headed after last week's steep sell-off.

Light, sweet crude traded above $143 per barrel for the first time early Monday before pulling back and changing hands up $2.08 at $142.29 in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Rising prices have weighed on stock markets...