NEW YORK -- Stocks traded mixed Monday as
investors remained wary about the strength of the economic recovery and
mounting debt in Europe.
The
market's major indexes held to a tight range and were nearly unchanged at
midday, recovering from an early slide. Stocks have traded erratically in the
past four weeks as investors try to determine whether a global economic
recovery is sustainable.
Concerns
are growing that some European countries including Greece,
Portugal and Spain might not
be able to handle their mounting levels of debt. Stocks have also been hurt by China's plans
to contain economic growth and the Obama administration's proposed rules to
restrict trading by large financial institutions.
The
questions have investors on edge about whether the global economy can maintain
a recovery. Stocks have climbed for 10 months on hopes of a rebound after
hitting 12-year lows last March.
Investors
are looking for fresh evidence of economic growth. The recent troubles demonstrate
a recovery might not be happening as fast as some had hoped. The concerns have
hit stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average is down 713 points, or 6.7
percent, since closing at a 15-month high of 10,725.43 on Jan. 19.
Brett
Hryb, a portfolio manager with MFC Global Investment Management in Toronto, said he was encouraged by the market's ability to
hold its ground Monday as traders sort through questions about debt in Europe.
Hryb
said the concern is that the financial troubles in a country like Greece will
spill into other markets. "Clearly Greece itself is nothing. It's just
a blip. It's what the contagion could be," he said.
In
midday trading, the Dow fell 12.77, or 0.1 percent, to 9,999.46 after being
down as much as 78 points after the opening bell. On Thursday, the Dow traded
below the psychological barrier of 10,000 for the first time since November.
The
broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.87, or 0.4 percent, to 1,070.06,
while the Nasdaq composite index rose 10.31, or 0.5 percent, to 2,151.43.
Bond
prices fell, pushing their yields slightly higher. The yield on the benchmark
10-year Treasury note rose to 3.59 percent from 3.57 percent late Friday.
The
dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold rose.
Crude
oil rose 73 cents to $71.92 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In
earnings news, the toymaker Hasbro Inc. said its profit surged 77 percent in
the fourth quarter while drugstore chain CVS Caremark Corp. said its earnings
rose 11 percent. The results beat analysts' estimates.
Hasbro
jumped $4.15, or 13.5 percent, to $34.95, while CVS rose $1.97, or 6.3 percent,
to $33.03.
Three
stocks rose for every two that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where
volume came to 392.6 million shares compared with 550.3 million shares traded
at the same point Friday.
The
Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 0.88, or 0.2 percent, to 593.86.
In
afternoon trading, Britain's
FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent, Germany's
DAX index gained 0.9 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 1 percent.
Earlier, Japan's
Nikkei stock average fell 1.1 percent.