NEW YORK - Stocks pared their losses and ended narrowly mixed Monday amid anxiety over Europe's financial crisis and a widening probe into insider trading on Wall Street.
Bank shares slumped after the FBI raided the offices of two hedge funds as part of a broad insider trading probe. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. sank 3.4 percent, while Bank of America Corp. fell 3.1 percent.
Retail and consumer goods stocks rose on hopes that shoppers will be in a spending mood for the holiday season.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 24.97 points, 0.2 percent, to 11,178.58. The Dow was down as much as 149 points earlier in the day.
Bank stocks already were under pressure because of concerns over how the International Monetary Fund and European Union bailout of Ireland, which was announced over the weekend, would affect their investment portfolios and ability to increase dividends.
"Banks will have to take a haircut," said Benjamin Wallace, securities analyst at Grimes & Co. in Westborough, Mass. "All these issues bring into question whether banks are strong enough to pay out dividends next year, and whether the government will ask them to hold on to more capital."
Ireland formally asked for help from its neighbors Sunday following weeks of pressure from the European Union. While details of the package are still being worked out, Ireland's government slipped further into crisis Monday as a coalition partner of Prime Minister Brian Cowen threatened to abandon him.
It was the second time this year that the European Union has come to the rescue of one of the 16 countries that use the euro. In May, the E.U. and the IMF committed $140 billion to Greece to prevent that country from defaulting on its debt.
