Record iPhone 6 sales would have been even better if...

Through the prism of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly on Wall Street, here are three top items for investors on Monday.

Sales in the first weekend for Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus topped 10 million devices, eclipsing the launch figures of the 5S and 5C models, which moved 9 million in their first three days last year. Piper Jaffray Analyst Gene Munster told CNBC's "Squawk Box" Monday the year-over-year 11 percent increase would have been even better had the China rollout not been delayed.

The first-ever Corporate Perception Indicator—researched for CNBC by Burson-Marsteller—showed more than a third of Americans think about big companies as a source of fear. The poll also found less than half of Americans view corporations favorably.

Germany's Merck KGaA has agreed to buy U.S.-based life sciences company Sigma-Aldrich for $17 billion in cash. Sigma-Aldrich does about 60 percent of its sales overseas, so this deal would eliminate the double U.S. taxation on foreign revenue brought back to America.

—By CNBC's Matthew J. Belvedere.