Stocks mixed early after S&P's warning to Europe

Stocks wavered between small gains and losses Tuesday morning after Standard & Poor's expanded its downgrade threat against Europe to include the region's main bailout fund.

The credit rating agency warned late Monday that it might downgrade 15 countries that use the euro, even Germany, which has a perfect AAA rating and Europe's strongest economy. On Tuesday S&P said it might also cut the AAA rating of Europe's bailout fund. The fund needs that top rating to cheaply raise money, and losing it would mean it would cost billions more to fund bailouts. European markets were mostly lower on the news.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index edged up less than 1 point to 1,258 as of 10:30 a.m.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 44 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,142. The Dow was led by manufacturing conglomerate 3M Co., which rose 1 percent after the maker of Post-It notes forecast 2012 earnings that were stronger that many analysts were expecting.