Renewed concerns about the stalled economic recovery weighed the markets down during the midday with the Dow slipping 5 points to 10,208. Nasdaq lost 10 points to 2169.

On the upside

Shares of SinoCoking Coal (Nasdaq: SCOK) rose ahead of its corporate update conference call tomorrow.

Warner Chilcott (Nasdaq: WCRX) announced a special dividend of $8.50 per share payable on September 8 to shareholders of record August 30.

Shares of data storage companies CommVault (Nasdaq: CVLT) and Compellent (NYSE: CML) rose on Hewlett-Packard's (NSYE: HPQ) $1.5 billion offer for 3Par (NYSE: PAR).

On the downside

OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX) eliminated the OfficeMax Company Stock Fund from its employee benefit plans.

Reuters reported that Vale (NYSE: VALE) will not make an offer for Potash (NYSE: POT).

Japanese buyers in negotiations with aluminum supplier Alcoa (NYSE: AA) expect to cut premiums fourth quarter shipments.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 10 to 9 on the NYSE while decliners edged out advancers by 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks eased a point to 609.