NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stocks slumped Monday, as investors bailed out of a slew of sectors amid concerns about mid-week testimony from new Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

The Nasdaq composite (down 22.07 to 2,239.81, Charts) lost 1 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average (down 26.73 to 10,892.32, Charts) and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 (down 4.13 to 1,262.86, Charts) index both lost around 0.3 percent.

Among stock movers, weakness in Google following a bearish article in financial weekly Barron's started the tech sector off on the wrong foot. The sell-off picked up steam in the afternoon, spreading to the broader market, with Internet, chip, home building and energy stocks leading the way down.

Treasury prices barely budged, while the dollar was barely lower versus other major currencies.

"I think the market is concerned about what we'll hear out of Bernanke, that he may need to come out and be more hawkish," said John Davidson, president and CEO at PartnerRe Asset Management.

More than that, it may just be the fact that Bernanke, while respected, is new to the job.

"We've had the same Fed chairman for so many years that we have a standard," Davidson said. "He represents an unknown, to an extent."

Ahead of Bernanke's speech, investors will take in reports Tuesday on January retail sales and December business inventories.

Lexar Media (Research) was among the stocks likely to be active Tuesday morning after the flash memory make warned that it will post a loss in the fourth quarter versus expectations of a profit. Shares slipped 6 percent in after-hours trade.

Additionally, Dow component 3M (Research) announced that it was boosting its quarterly dividend to 46 cents per share and that it has authorized the repurchasing of $2 billion in outstanding shares in 2006. Shares gained 1 percent in after-hours trade.

Nasdaq and S&P futures pointed to a flat open Tuesday for stocks, when fair value is taken into account.

Ben Bernanke testifies before Congress on Wednesday regarding monetary policy and the economy. It will be his first public testimony as the new head of the Federal Reserve, since replacing Alan Greenspan two weeks ago.

"The stock market rallied late last year and early January because people thought we were near the end of the rate cycle, but now they're less sure," said David Briggs, head of equity trading at Federated Investors.

Some investors are concerned that Bernanke may want to come across as an aggressive inflation-fighter in this speech, so as to establish himself from the get go.

But others say that the well-respected Bernanke is unlikely to be concerned with such matters Wednesday and that -- much like his predecessor -- he is likely to stick to say as little as possible that will rattle markets.

"The Federal Reserve's objective is two fold -- price stability and employment growth," said Davidson. "All too often we think it's the Fed chairman's job to manage the stock market, when it's not."

At the Jan. 31 Fed policy meeting, the last under Greenspan, the central bank opted to boost a key short-term rate a quarter-percentage point to 4.5 percent, the 14th consecutive hike since late June 2004. The statement also left the door open for further rate hikes.

Google (down $16.91 to $345.70, Research) lost 4.7 percent after an article in Barron's said the tech leader's shares could be cut in half over the next year.

The publication cited competition from Microsoft (down $0.30 to $26.39, Research) and Yahoo! (down $0.47 to $32.04, Research), as well as pricing pressure for online ad sales, among other issues. (For more on Google, click here).

Other Web stocks fell in tandem and the Goldman Sachs Internet (Charts) index lost 1.4 percent.

A number of other big tech stocks declined, with investors continuing to take profits after the recent run.

Intel (down $0.16 to $21.13, Research) led the list of chip decliners. The Philadelphia Semiconductor (down 7.59 to 532.80, Charts) index, or the SOX, lost 1.4 percent.

Research in Motion (down $1.72 to $68.35, Research) -- already scrambling to deal with the possible loss of a key patent -- was dealt another blow Monday on news that Microsoft is introducing several devices to challenge its dominant mobile e-mail service Blackberry.

The stock sank 2.5 percent.

Starbucks (down $0.93 to $34.57, Research) slipped 2.6 percent after a UBS analyst downgraded the specialty coffee retailer to "neutral" from "buy," saying that the stock may be tapped out for the near term following a big run up over the last six months.

In other news, Merrill Lynch (up $1.04 to $73.83, Research) is reportedly in talks to spend about $8 billion to buy a large stake in BlackRock (up $10.48 to $141.99, Research), a money management firm, according to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Merrill shares gained modestly and BlackRock shares jumped 8 percent.

Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers beat winners seven to four on volume of 1.36 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners topped advancers by nine to five on volume of 1.69 billion shares.

U.S. light crude oil for March delivery fell 60 cents to settle at $61.24 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Rather than support market sentiment, the decline in oil prices caused a sell off in the oil sector. The Philadelphia Oil Service (Charts) sector index lost 1 percent.

Treasury prices inched higher, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 4.57 percent from 4.58 percent late Friday.

In currency trading, the dollar edged lower versus the euro and yen.

COMEX gold for April delivery tumbled $11.20 to $539 an ounce.

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