12:30 pm : After a steady, upward march that helped the Dow halve its losses, stocks are now making a gradual descent deeper into negative territory. Stocks are off of their lows, but the persistent pessimism has made for some rather sizable losses.DJ30 -146.09 NASDAQ -32.86 SP500 -17.97 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 504/734 mln/2011 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 437/445 mln/2492

12:00 pm : Stocks have stemmed their losses, but weakness persists as they start to drift sideways. Losses are least severe among defensive-oriented sectors like health care and telecom, both of which are down 0.8%.

Conversely, energy continues to contend with the worst selling pressure. The sector is down 2.2%. It had been down 3.3% at its session low, though. The sector's move off of its session low has been accompanied by oil's lift. Oil futures prices had been down some 6% in early pit trade, but it was last quoted at $75.95 per ounce, down 2.8%. DJ30 -123.20 NASDAQ -25.63 SP500 -14.64 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 545/640 mln/1946 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 428/386 mln/2463

11:30 am : Stocks have been gradually trimming their losses, but recently pulled back a bit as they take a breather from the ascent, which took the Dow from a loss of roughly 2.2% to a loss of 0.9%. Still, all 30 Dow components are trading with a loss.

As stocks have trimmed their losses, the dollar has trimmed its gains. The greenback had been up approximatlye 0.8% against a basket of major foreign currencies, but it is now up a more tame 0.3%. DJ30 -145.48 NASDAQ -28.01 SP500 -16.60 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 490/588 mln/1975 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 400/361 mln/2481