The downgrade of five Greek banks weighed the markets down during the midday with the Dow losing 44 points to 12,397. Nasdaq fell 18 points to 2794.

On the upside

Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) opened above its IPO price of $38 and reached a high of $45 before slipping down to $40.98 at midday.

Rising natural gas prices lifted shares of Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK).

Brown Shoe (Nasdaq: BWS) reported sharply lower first quarter earnings on higher markdowns but the results were better than expected.

On the downside

Profit taking sank shares of FriendFinder Networks (Nasdaq: FFN) whose stock price soared yesterday ahead of Facebook's (Nasdaq: FB) market debut.

Firsthand Technology Value Fund (Nasdaq: SVVC) and GSV Capital (Nasdaq: GSVC), which acquired stakes in Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) before the initial public offering, tumbled as shares of the social networking site failed to surge.

Schnitzer Steel Industries (Nasdaq: SCHN) warned that higher raw material expenses will pressure margins in the third quarter.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by more than 7 to 5 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks eased a fraction to 753.