The drop in oil hit energy and commodity stocks. Exxon Mobil Corp. fell 39 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $68.10, and Occidental fell $1.58, or 2.5 percent, to $61.70.

Alcoa fell 60 cents, or 6.1 percent, to $9.26, while Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. fell $3.78, or 7.6 percent, to $45.94.

Among consumer staples companies, P&G rose $1.06, or 2.1 percent, to $52.17. General Mills Inc., the maker of Cheerios and Yoplait yogurt, advanced $1.90, or 3.3 percent, to $60.40.

The mixed trading comes after the market reached a plateau in mid-June, mainly holding on to the gains it notched this spring. Investors are looking for confirmation of an economic recovery to take stocks higher. The upcoming earnings season and any forecasts companies make about the rest of the year are sure to answer questions about where the market goes next.

"There is a sense that the fundamentals in the marketplace haven't caught up with the technical rally that we got in March," said Dan Deming, a trader with Strutland Equities in Chicago.

U.S. markets are catching up after being closed Friday for the July Fourth holiday. On Thursday, stocks fell sharply in response to the Labor Department employment numbers, pushing major indexes down more than 2 percent.

Three stocks fell for every two that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.1 billion shares, compared with a light 733.6 million traded Thursday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 3.18, or 0.6 percent, to 494.03.

Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was flat at 3.50 percent, and the yield on the three-month T-bill rose to 0.16 percent from 0.15 percent late Thursday.

The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices also rose.

Overseas, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 1.2 percent, and France's CAC-40 slid 1.1 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 1.4 percent.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.