Stocks Erase Early Gains

Updated from 1:32 p.m. EDT

Stocks were petering out Monday afternoon as blue chips struggled to sustain even a modest recovery from the previous session's giant selloff, with tech shares sliding even further into the red.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, up roughly 120 points earlier, recently pared back to a gain of 16 points, or 0.1%, to 12,226. The S&P 500 lost its grip on positive territory entirely, recently sinking 8 points, or 0.6%, to 1353.

The Nasdaq Composite, which has been weak for the entire session, lately dropped 37 points, or 1.5%, to 2437 as big tech names Cisco (CSCO Quote), Apple (AAPL Quote) and Google (GOOG Quote) saw weakness.

"The bear market rally looks over," said Phillip Roth, chief technical market analyst with Miller Tabak, referring to a general rebound in equities over the past three months. He believes equities will eventually slide past the lows established in March in the wake of Bear Stearns' near collapse, though he added that stocks "might not crack those lows imminently."

Crude oil, which ramped higher by more than $10 a barrel in the last session and helped yank down the Dow by some 400 points, remained at extraordinarily high levels today. Still, futures saw a bit of profit-taking amid news that Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali al-Naimi has called Friday's massive gains "unjustified," according to the Saudi Press Agency. Futures recently were off $2.87 to $135.67 a barrel.

The U.S. dollar reversed an early dip, firming 0.6% against the euro to $1.5667 and climbing 0.9% against the yen at 106.02, as crude held in negative territory.