Concerns that the rising value of the dollar will hinder exports weighed the markets down during the midday with the Dow losing 21 points to 11,455. Nasdaq fell 12 points to 2615.
On the upside
Joy Global (Nasdaq: JOYG) reported higher fourth quarter earnings to beat analyst expectations as revenue rose and forecast 2011 income that surpassed estimates.
Rumors that The St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE) will be acquired lifted shares of the real estate developer.
KEMET (NYSE: KEM) unveiled its new Ceramic Chip Capacitor Array in a smaller case size.
On the downside
DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS) priced a private placement of common shares in its subsidiary Ocean Rig at $17.50 per share.
Financial community Trefis suggested that rising Android phone sales have negatively impacted Research in Motion's (Nasdaq: RIMM) Blackberry.
Fewer consumers were delinquent on their credit card payments in November but consumers are also charging less sending shares of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) lower as banks collect fewer fees from transactions.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 10 to 9 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks rose 4 point to 776.