Stocks are lower at mid-day, giving up midmorning gains on upbeat manufacturing and pending home sales data. Profit-taking sent the three main indexes lower after the broader market closed the books on the best August since 2000.

The Institute for Supply Management said its index of manufacturing activity rose to 52.9 in August, up from 48.9 in July and well above the reading of 50.5 analysts had been expecting. A figure above 50 signifies growth. This was the first move above 50 since January 2008.

The National Association of Realtors said its index of pending U.S. home sales rose 3.2% in July to 97.6, more than the 96.5 forecast by analysts and the highest level in more than two years. It also was the sixth straight increase.

The Commerce Department also said home building had its best performance in 10 months although construction spending inched lower in July.

Oil prices turn lower with stocks. Crude was last at $69.49 per barrel after an earlier boost from the economic data. Oil has declined since hitting the highs of 2009 above $74 last week.

The Nasdaq is suffering amid mixed tech news. eBay (EBAY) says it is selling 65% of its Skype Internet phone unit to a group of private investors for $1.9 billion. Shares give up earlier gains made before the confirmation.

Yahoo! (YHOO) shares are softer after activist investor Carl Icahn said in a SEC filing he has sold 12.7 million YHOO shares in the last 60 days, reducing his stake below 5%. The filing said the sale was made to reshuffle stock portfolios.

Financial shares are mostly lower. AIG (AIG) is under selling pressure, extending the 2.1% slide recorded in Monday's evening trade after the company, its former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Maurice Greenberg, and its former Chief Financial Officer Howard Smith jointly announced they have agreed on terms for binding arbitration of various legal disputes between AIG, and Greenberg and Smith. Shares also got downgraded this morning to "underperform" at Sanford C. Bernstein.

Bank of America (BAC) erases early gains made after BAC offered to repay part of the $45 billion in bailout money it received from the U.S. government under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Telecom shares are mixed on analyst actions. A Credit Suisse analyst note on the sector included upgrades to "outperform" from "neutral" for Motorola (MOT) and Research in Motion (RIMM) and downgrades to "neutral" from "outperform" for Nokia (NOK), Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) and Qualcomm (QCOM).

Novavax (NVAX) is an active upside mover after it announced favorable results from a Phase II human clinical trial of its trivalent seasonal influenza virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine candidate.

Icagen (ICGN) is jumping after a study met primary endpoints.

But ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (ACAD) is plunging in higher volume after it announced top-line results from the first pivotal Phase III trial with pimavanserin in patients with Parkinson's disease psychosis, or PDP. The study did not meet its primary endpoint of antipsychotic efficacy.

Brigham Exploration (BEXP) jumps after the company said late Monday it expects oil volumes to increase in Q3 and cash flows to remain strong. It also announced positive results at its Figaro 29-32 well in the Bakken shale.

Overseas, markets were mixed. Asia closed higher but Europe was lower. European stocks fell after a U.K. manufacturing gauge unexpectedly slid back into territory that indicates contraction. Gold turns lower to $951.80 per ounce.