Stocks mixed, despite strong US manufacturing data

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks lost momentum heading into midday trading today despite an increase in U.S. manufacturing last month.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 11 points, or 0.1 percent, to 15,556 as of 12:10 p.m. Eastern. The blue chips had been up 103 points earlier.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down two points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,754. The Nasdaq composite was the weakest of the three indexes, losing 12 points, or 0.3 percent, to 3,907.

The Nasdaq was hit with more technical problems. Trading was halted on the Nasdaq Options Market as of 10:36 a.m. Eastern time, according to Nasdaq OMX. Regular stock trading was not affected.

On Tuesday, Nasdaq indexes weren't updated for about 45 minutes because of a technical problem, and on Aug. 22 trading was halted on the Nasdaq Stock Market for three hours because of a separate technical glitch.