FILE - In a Dec. 9, 2011 file photo specialist Michael Gagliano, foreground right, works at a post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Wall Street appeared set for a higher open, Friday May 25, 2012 with Dow Jones industrial futures rising 0.2 percent to 12,558 and S&P 500 futures gaining 0.3 percent to 1,326.20. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
FILE - In a Dec. 9, 2011 file photo specialist Michael Gagliano, foreground right, works at a post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Wall Street appeared set for a higher open, Friday May 25, 2012 with Dow Jones industrial futures rising 0.2 percent to 12,558 and S&P 500 futures gaining 0.3 percent to 1,326.20. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
NEW YORK (AP) ? The market struggled for direction Friday afternoon, with two major indexes wavering indecisively between small gains and losses.
Trading was light as investors prepared for the Memorial Day weekend.
"People are sitting on their hands, waiting for something to happen," said Jeff Schwarte, portfolio manager at Principal Global Investors in Des Moines, Iowa.
The perpetual concerns that have plagued the market this month ? Europe's debt crisis, the limping U.S. economy, a slowdown in China's growth ? recorded a few incremental developments.
The head of Germany's central bank, which has been skeptical of bailing out Greece and other weak European countries, reinforced the point when he said it was an "illusion" to think allowing euro zone countries to borrow money jointly would solve the crisis. In teetering Portugal, the parliament endorsed a budget plan that would set legal limits on government spending. And Spain's market regulator suspended trading of shares in Bankia, a bailed-out bank that is preparing to ask for even more rescue money from the government.
In Asia, media reports suggested that some of China's biggest banks will miss their annual lending targets for the first time in seven years, and Taiwan lowered its economic growth forecast for the year.
Caterpillar, which relies heavily on demand from China, fell 1 percent.
Facebook, marking its one-week anniversary as a public company, fell nearly 4 percent to $31.80. Talbots, the women's clothing chain, plunged 39 percent to $1.56 after announcing that a deadline expired without a deal to be acquired by Sycamore Partners.
In the early afternoon, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 38 points to 12,492. It has been on a steady slide this month, giving up most of the gains it notched in the first quarter. It's heading for its first losing month since September.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index was virtually flat at 1,321. The Nasdaq composite rose 2 points to 2,841.
In Europe, stock indexes in France, Britain, Germany and Spain rose, while Greece's ATHEX plunged 3.5 percent. Borrowing rates edged higher for Spain and Italy.
Greece's June 17 elections are an overhang on the market. The results will determine if Greece agrees to the spending cuts that it must swallow if it wants to stay in the 17-country euro zone, or if it goes its own way.
The idea of cutting government spending is unpopular in a country where residents have grown used to public-sector largesse. But if Greece left the euro zone, it would have to revert to its own currency. That would be severely devalued, and the country's standard of living would probably be crushed.
Greece makes up just 2 percent of the euro zone economy, but its fate would carry ripple effects to other, larger members. Unnerved traders could dump the bonds of other struggling European countries, such as Spain and Italy. Residents could start to pull money out of banks there, as has been happening in Greece.
The standoffs so far have almost always lasted until the 11th hour.
"Every time you think it's going to fall off a cliff and end very badly, something happens," said Beata Kirr, senior portfolio manager at Bernstein Global Wealth Management in Chicago. "The European Central Bank steps in to buy Italian and Spanish bonds. Or Germany softens its stance on austerity. All of these things have happened when it's past the precipice."
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