Stocks are mostly falling after another slump in the euro prolonged concerns about Europe's economy.
Most European indexes are lower following a bailout over the weekend of a regional bank in Spain. It is only the second time Spain's central bank has stepped in to bail out a regional lender.
The euro fell against the dollar, dropping to $1.2377. Traders have been dumping the euro on fears that massive debts could lead to a default by a weaker European country like Greece.
At midday, the Dow Jones industrials are down 32 at 10,162. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is down 1 at 1,087. The Nasdaq composite index is up 9 at 2,238.
There is uncertainty about whether countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal will be able to contain mounting debt through steep spending cuts. And, investors are also worried that those budget cuts will upend an economic recovery in Europe and slow a worldwide rebound.
The drop comes after a tumultuous week. Major U.S. indexes posted their biggest one-day losses of the year on Thursday and staged a partial rebound Friday. Stocks have been hit hard in recent weeks on worries about European sovereign debt problems.
"Right now the U.S. financial markets are trading very much out of fear and not any fundamentals," said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist of Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.
Investors brushed off gains in Asia, where China's president said the country will loosen its currency policy. No timetable was given, however.
There was also welcome news about the U.S. economy. The National Association of Realtors said sales of previously owned homes rose 7.6 percent to an annual rate of 5.77 million. That is the best showing in five months and ahead of expectations. Buyers were rushing to meet a deadline for a tax credit.
In late morning trading, the Dow fell 49.28, or 0.5 percent, to 10,143.66. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.26, or 0.3 percent, to 1,084.43, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 7.30, or 0.3 percent, to 2,236.34.
Despite a rally Friday that lifted the Dow 125 points, major indexes were still sharply lower last week. Stocks are now trading at about where they were in early February and are down more than 2 percent for the year.
Major indexes are down about 10 percent from their highs of the year, set in late April. That size drop is known as a "correction." It's the first retreat of that scale since stocks began a largely uninterrupted advance off of 12-year lows reached in March of 2009.
Bond prices rose. Investors have been flocking to the relative safety of government bonds and have at times dumped riskier assets like stocks and commodities. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.20 percent from 3.24 percent late Friday.
Gold rose to $1,187.70 an ounce.
Crude oil rose 15 cents to $70.19 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Four stocks rose for every three that fell on the
New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to came to 330 million shares compared with 890 million traded at the same point Friday.
In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.3 percent, Germany's DAX index dropped 0.3 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.5 percent. Earlier, China's Shanghai Composite index jumped 3.5 percent.
