* Worries about European debt hurt bank shares
* Upgrades boost semis, lift Nasdaq
* Dow off 0.2 pct, S&P off 0.2 pct, Nasdaq up 0.6 pct * For up-to-the-minute market news see [STXNEWS/US] (Updates to close, changes byline)
By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Bank shares weighed on stocks on Monday as Europe's smoldering debt crisis and fears of an insider trading probe in the United States sapped buying interest for most of the session.
The Nasdaq fared better than the Dow and the S&P 500 after
upgrades to chipmaker SanDisk Corp
Risk aversion kicked in as stocks followed the euro's fall against the U.S. dollar after turmoil in Ireland's fragile coalition government overshadowed an agreed-on bailout of the country.
Investors fear the crisis will spread throughout Europe,
raising the specter of losses by exposed U.S. banks. The KBW
bank index <.BKX> lost 1.5 percent and Dow component JPMorgan
Chase & Co
"All the continued concerns coming out of Europe and the debt situation there is what got us started on the way down today," said Tom Schrader, managing director of U.S. equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets in Baltimore.
Worry about a broad insider trading probe in the United
States hit shares of large brokerages and Goldman Sachs Group
"The situation on insider trading put some more fuel on the fire for short-term trading in the afternoon," said Schrader, who added the concerns were "probably a gross over-reaction" to the insider trading probe.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 24.97 points, or 0.22 percent, to 11,178.58. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> dipped 1.89 points, or 0.16 percent, to 1,197.84. But the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> gained 13.90 points, or 0.55 percent, to 2,532.02.
Ireland's unpopular coalition government began to crumble a day after agreeing on an European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout, casting doubt on its ability to push through an austerity budget crucial to receiving assistance.
U.S.-listed shares of Bank of Ireland
The S&P energy index <.GSPE> bounced from a more than 2.2
percent decline to close down 0.4 percent after U.S. light
crude futures
Chipmaker SanDisk gained 6.5 percent to $42.57 after Robert W. Baird upgraded the stock to "outperform" from "neutral," while Amkor jumped 6 percent to $6.86 and Teradyne added 5.7 percent to $12.53 after Citigroup raised its rating on both shares.
The PHLX Semiconductor Index <.SOX> added 1.1 percent to close at 391.33.
Leadership from semiconductors may find a near-term hurdle as the SOX index approaches the 395 area, a six-month high hit earlier this month. The index's 2010 high, near 405, was hit in late April.
With relative momentum and strength readings near overbought levels, a pullback in the sector is in the charts. However, the uptrend that has seen the SOX rise more than 28 percent from a low hit late August is still in place.
Also boosting the Nasdaq, Netflix Inc
About 7.04 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq, below the year-to-date average of 8.69 billion.
Advancing stocks slightly outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,520 to 1,453, while on the Nasdaq, 1,336 stocks rose and 1,303 fell. (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Jan Paschal)