@leocg I think I may have resolved my own problem and the result seems embarrassingly obvious. The stop loading icon is hidden under the reload icon on the left next to the forward and backward icons in the navigation buttons area. When a search is being performed and a page is loading or being reloaded the Reload icon will change to an X and can be clicked on to stop the process. I do feel a little silly but I always felt there was no such thing as a bad question, at least most of the time.
Opera for Mac
