New York - US stocks closed mixed on Monday after a day of bumpy trade, as eurozone turmoil kept a shadow over the markets.
A dim report on new US industrial orders in April helped erase opening gains and sent stocks solidly in the red but buyers came back in to wipe out the losses in afternoon trade.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day down 17.11 points at 12,101.46.
The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.14 to 1,278.18, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 12.53 to 2,760.01.
Lack of a clear direction in Europe over how to rescue Spain's banks kept a cloud over sentiment, as did the effect of last week's poor US data on jobs and consumer spending.
"Investors are worried that European officials are not addressing their escalating crisis fast enough, especially since several recent elections indicate that voters are opposed to current austerity policies," said Gary Thayer of Wells Fargo Advisors.
"The US stock market is going to remain beholden to headlines out of Europe for a while," said Dick Green of Briefing.com. "There was no hard news from politicians, although there are indications that Germany may be softening its stance on European-wide solutions."
Home Depot led the Dow gainers with a 1.7% rise. JPMorgan Chase led losers, down 2.9%, hurt in part by a report from the liquidator of collapsed broker MF Global that suggested he might pursue the bank for hundreds of millions of dollars that could belong to MF Global clients.
The Nasdaq, which plunged 2.8% on Friday, got a boost from Amazon, which gained 3.1%, and Starbucks, up 3.4%.
But BlackBerry maker Research in Motion fell 5.9% to a new low of $9.66, and Facebook lost 3.0% to close at $26.90, after have traded as low as $26.44 - more than 30% below the May 18 IPO price.
Bond prices fell as yields rebounded from Friday's record lows. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond rose to 1.53% from 1.47% on Friday, while the 30-year moved to 2.57% from 2.54%.
Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.