Blue Chips Set the Pace

Updated from 9:51 a.m. EDT

Stocks traded mixed early Monday as blue chips made a modest recovery from the giant selloff in the previous session with help from positive housing-sector news, even as tech shares remained stuck in the red.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 111 points to 12,321, and the S&P 500 was adding 8 points to 1368. The Nasdaq Composite saw a bit of positive action, but recently gave up 7 points to 2468.

Blue-chip gains piled higher after the National Association of Realtors said pending-home sales shot up 6.3% in April, far better than the economists' consensus for a 1% drop and a March decline of 1%. ...