Stocks grappled for direction in early trade, quickly shedding their opening gains and dipping into the red. The Dow slipped 0.2%. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 were down less than 0.1% each. The stock market today at first appeared to shake off uncertainties about China, erasing premarket losses and posting modest opening gains. But trade was weak, down 24% on the Nasdaq and 16% lower on the NYSE compared with Monday’s opening numbers.