US stocks slip across industries in morning, led by drop in the telecommunications companies

U.S. stocks inched mostly lower in morning trading Monday as investors sold across industries. Nine of the 10 industry sectors of the Standard and Poor's 500 index were lower, led by telecommunications companies. The slump erased gains at the opening following news of a big acquisition in the semiconductor industry.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell two points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 18,008 as of 10:26 a.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped two points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,105. The Nasdaq composite fell 16 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,053.

CHIP DEAL: Chip designer Altera jumped 6 percent, the most in the S&P 500, after the company agreed to be acquired by Intel for $17 billion in cash. It rose $2.96 to $51.81.

EYES ON THE ECONOMY: Investors are awaiting several economic reports this week, culminating Friday with the jobs report for May. Investors are hoping to see signs that a slump in the U.S. economy in the first quarter was an "aberration," said Chris Beauchamp, senior market analyst at IG.

EUROPE HIGHER: Germany's DAX fell 0.3 percent while the CAC-40 in France rose 0.2 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares fell 0.3 percent.

GREECE UNCERTAINTY: Tensions remain high in Europe as Greece inches closer to a Friday deadline to make a debt payment to the International Monetary Fund. Greece is struggling to convince the IMF and creditors in Europe that it has a reform strategy in place so it can get access to more bailout cash.

One suggestion is that Greece could roll all its IMF payments due this month into one, giving it more time to secure a deal to get the 7.2 billion euros ($7.9 billion) remaining in its bailout fund.

ANALYST TAKE: "Concerns about Greece continue to hold investors back from taking on too much risk," said Fawad Razaqzada, an analyst at Forex.com. "With the lack of progress on the issue the pressure is now growing."

CHINA SLOWDOWN: Two surveys Monday showed China's manufacturing industry, which employs millions of people, remained weak last month. That has added pressure on Beijing to roll out more measures to keep growth of the world's second-largest economy on target. The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing's manufacturing index showed activity stagnating. HSBC's manufacturing index showed manufacturing contracted for a third straight month.

ASIA'S DAY: The Shanghai Composite jumped 4.7 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.6 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 ended flat while South Korea's Kospi sank 0.6 percent.

ENERGY: U.S. benchmark crude oil fell 27 cents to $60.04 a barrel in New York.

CURRENCIES: Trading in foreign exchange markets was fairly subdued. The euro was little changed at $1.0909 and the dollar rose slightly to 124.29 Japanese yen.

BONDS: Bond prices fell slightly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.14 percent from 2.12 percent late Friday.