The markets recovered early morning losses but continued trading lower during the midday with the Dow falling 54 points to 12,765 as European debt concerns continued to weigh on investors. Nasdaq lost 10 points to 2923.

On the upside

Investors snapped up shares of Groupon (Nasdaq: GRPN) ahead of its earnings release after market close.

BMC Software (Nasdaq: BMC) adopted a shareholder rights plan to protect itself from a possible hostile takeover by Elliott Associates.

Avon Products (NYSE: AVP) will evaluate the increased acquisition offer made by Coty last Thursday.

On the downside

Shares of Kemet (NYSE: KEM) continued falling after reporting sharply lower fourth quarter earnings last Thursday.

Shares of NetQin Mobile (NYSE: NQ) continued falling after announcing a secondary offering of 6 million American Depositary Shares last week.

Societe Generale analyst Andy Perkins downgraded Nokia (NYSE: NOK) to a Sell rating.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks dropped 7 points to 782.