A proposed tax on Cyprus bank depositors weighed the markets down during the midday with the Dow slipping 20 points to 14,493. Nasdaq lost 6 points to 3242.

On the upside

Jefferies & Co. analyst Brian Fitzgerald upgraded ValueClick (Nasdaq: VCLK) to a Buy rating. 

Technology blog GigaOM wrote last week that IBM (NYSE: IBM) was exploring the possibility of purchasing Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX).

New Oriental Education & Technology (NYSE: EDU) rose on acquisition speculation.

On the downside

Shares of ReneSola (NYSE: SOL) continued falling after reporting a wider fourth quarter loss last week.

MPM Funds and Sanderling Venture Funds sold shared of Pacira Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: PCRX) last week.

Shares of Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) fell on news that China may reduce subsidies to the solar industry.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 3 to 2 on the NYSE and by 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index lost 5 points to 1555.