Stocks Give Up Gains, But Most Leaders Hold Up OK

Stocks tumbled Monday as a rebounding dollar erased morning gains.

The NYSE composite and the Dow each lopped off 1%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq surrendered 0.9% and 0.7%, respectively. Volume on both major exchanges was well below Friday's above-average levels.

The major indexes closed at session lows.

Most of the day's activity appeared to follow moves in the dollar. The U.S. currency fluctuated in response to concerns over sovereign-debt woes affecting Greece and other European nations.

Despite more losses Monday, a few factors about the session were encouraging.

First, the major indexes remained above Friday's lows, which marked the deepest point so far in the current correction. So technically the market is still working on an attempted rally.

Second, most of the day's stock declines came in lower volume. The overall market's loss in lower volume is generally the kind of action you'd like to see, bear market or bull. It indicates that institutional investors are playing a comparatively small role in the selling.

Finally, Monday's action differed from last week in that positive earnings reports spurred buying. Up to then, many stocks had sold off even when their quarterly results were above estimates.

Among the losers, the majority slipped in soft trading and suffered no real damage on their charts.

U.S. Stocks Stumble; Dow Closes Below 10,000

5:15 p.m. Update: Stocks dropped after a seesaw session Monday, as overseas debt worries again plagued the market.

The Dow lost 1%, closing below the psychological level for the first time since Nov. 6. The NYSE composite also gave up 1%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 dropped 0.9% and the Nasdaq 0.7%.

Volume finished vastly lower than Friday's pace.