Stocks overcome early Irish contagion worries to finish mixed

Stocks finished mixed, but bounced back from early lows on worries that Ireland’s debt crisis could spread to other peripheral euro zone nations, follow a request by the Irish government for a multi-billion euro funding bailout.

The Dow Jones Industrial average slipped 24.97 points, or 0.22 percent, at 11,178.58. (At one point during today’s session, the Dow was down as much as 149 points). The S&P 500 index edged down 1.89 points, or 0.16 percent, at 1,197.84. The NASDAQ gained 13.90 points, or 0.55 percent, to 2,532.02.

Also, banking stocks were hurt by news of a federal probe on insider trading on Wall Street.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) dropped 3.09 percent; Citigroup (NYSE: C) slipped 2.06 percent, JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) lost 2.28 percent and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) sank 1.96 percent.

Also, Goldman Sachs (GS) tumbled 3.37 percent.

NASDAQ was boosted by Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) which surged 8.83 percent in afternoon trade after the company announced a streaming-only video service for $7.99 a month.

Also, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ: GMCR) soared 18.24 percent after announcing late Friday that it will restate earnings for the last three fiscal years and the first three quarters of the current fiscal year, because of accounting errors.

Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) advanced 5.96 percent after the company said it had agreed to be bought by Attachmate for $2.2 billion.

Oil for January delivery fell 36 cents, or 0.44 percent, to settle at $81.62 a barrel.

Bonds rose as the yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped to down 2.81 percent from 2.88 percent late Friday.

European/UK stocks finished lower.

Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 0.91 percent, Germany’s DAX fell 0.31 percent and France's CAC-40 shed 1.07 percent.