The Dow Jones industrial average declined, halting a seven-day winning streak, as investors sold some of the market's recent winners to take profits, and the S&P 500 index ended near break-even.
Today’s Markets 
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 34.68 points, or 0.39%, to 8881.26, the Standard & Poor's 500 sank 0.51 points, or 0.05%, to 954.07 and the Nasdaq Composite picked up 10.18 points, or 0.53%, to 1926.38. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 dropped 0.04 points, or 0.01%, to 703.39.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 34.68 points, or 0.39%, to 8881.26, the Standard & Poor's 500 sank 0.51 points, or 0.05%, to 954.07 and the Nasdaq Composite picked up 10.18 points, or 0.53%, to 1926.38. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 dropped 0.04 points, or 0.01%, to 703.39.
"Today's action is a relative positive in that you had some earnings come out that were good, but we are actually near the top of the range. There's a kind of a pause until we get more news on both the earnings and the economic front." said a senior Wall St analyst.
Despite the mixed finish, the bullish sentiment on Wall Street doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. Analysts were surprised the markets didn’t lose more ground considering the Dow had surged 770 points in just seven sessions.
“The very tame selloff we’re seeing this afternoon is almost inconsequential,” said Peter Kenny, managing director of Knight Capital Markets. “We’ve had a very nice winning streak here. Now we have a healthy, normal and expected correction that could extend to 3% to 5%. But I think there’s a healthy bid to the market.”
“The very tame selloff we’re seeing this afternoon is almost inconsequential,” said Peter Kenny, managing director of Knight Capital Markets. “We’ve had a very nice winning streak here. Now we have a healthy, normal and expected correction that could extend to 3% to 5%. But I think there’s a healthy bid to the market.”Once again the markets were dominated by a flood of earnings reports as bellwethers like Pfizer (PFE:15.89, 0.18, 1.15%), Boeing (BA: 41.99, -0.96, -2.24%) and Apple (AAPL: 156.74, 5.14, 3.39%) all beat the Street, continuing the successful start to earnings season. The big exception was Morgan Stanley (MS: 27.58, -0.74, -2.61%), which posted its third-straight loss but saw its shares close flat on the day.
“The expectations are so low that they are below sea level. The entire index is going off of the bellwether stocks and that’s going to lift all of the ships,” said NSYE trader Jason Weisberg of Seaport Securities. “The market tells me we are going a lot higher.”
It's not surprising to see the Dow take a breather as the index had posted its longest win streak in more than two years amid renewed economic optimism and impressive cost-cutting moves from Corporate America. The index was led lower Wednesday by Caterpillar (CAT: 38.62, -0.86, -2.18%) and Coca-Cola (KO). On the upside, Travelers (TRV: 41.38, 0.69, 1.7%) and General Electric (GE: 11.64, 0.19, 1.66%) were the biggest percentage winners.
Global Markets
European stocks rallied for the eighth day in a row as London's FTSE 100 rose 0.28% to 4493.73, France'sCAC 40 gained 0.07% to 3305.07 and Germany's DAX jumped 0.54% to 5121.56.
In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 0.74% to 9723.16, Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 1.3% to 19248.17 and China's Shanghai Composite jumped 2.6% to 3296.62.
European stocks rallied for the eighth day in a row as London's FTSE 100 rose 0.28% to 4493.73, France'sCAC 40 gained 0.07% to 3305.07 and Germany's DAX jumped 0.54% to 5121.56.In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 0.74% to 9723.16, Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 1.3% to 19248.17 and China's Shanghai Composite jumped 2.6% to 3296.62.
The dollar recovered against major currencies as traders gave a mixed response to Ben Bernanke's assessment of the US economy. The dollar index, which measures the US currency against six others, rose to an intra-day high of 79.083 before easing back to 78.920. Light, sweet crude fell 21 cents to settle at $65.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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