Stocks were mixed in late afternoon trading Monday, shedding small gains from earlier in the day. Corporate merger news and an encouraging survey of homebuilders had helped lift the market even as traders monitored the growing insurgency by Sunni militants in Iraq and its implications for global oil prices.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was flat at 1,935 as of 3:40 p.m. Eastern Time. The Dow Jones industrial average was little changed at 16,775. The Nasdaq composite added three points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,314.