Selloff Vanishes After Dow Late Rally

Thanks to a final-minute push, stocks ended unchanged on Wednesday as Wall Street overcame earnings jitters and crude oil's worst day in nearly three months. The afternoon comeback was the latest last-minute move that appeared to be mostly unprovoked. But after touching fresh multi-month lows Wednesday afternoon, stocks managed to bounce back.
Consumer discretionary shares paced the gains, which came along with a turn to positive in the energy sector during the last 15 minutes.

Stocks have drifted lower since mid-June on worries the economy won't stabilize as quickly as some had hoped. Those declines followed a three-month stock market rally that propelled the S&P 500 off of 12-year lows by about 40%

“This is nothing new. We’ve seen moves like this multiple times in the last half-hour without anything to account for it,” said Michael James, senior equity trader at Wedbush Morgan Securities. “There really doesn’t need to be a reason. For whatever reason, guys either decided they needed to be more long or less short and cover.”

Solid demand for a $19 billion auction of 10-year Treasury notes helped limit the losses, though, reassuring investors that there is still ample appetite for U.S. government debt. The auction drew a high yield of 3.37% and better demand than the past few.

Today’s Markets
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 14.81 points, or 0.18%, to 8178.41, the Standard & Poor's 500 lost 1.47 points, or 0.17%, to 879.56 and the Nasdaq Composite picked up 1 point, or 0.06%, to 1747.17.
The late-day rally left traders scratching their heads but the move coincided with headlines about the government's bank-bailout plan and came after a successful 10-year auction by the Treasury Department.
Wall Street appeared poised to end at fresh 10-week lows before the late-day rally amid earnings and economic jitters. The markets have given back almost 30% of their surge from the March lows as recent pessimism has reinforced the notion that stocks got ahead of the still-weak economy.

“There are a lot of questions around whether the economy is really regaining its footing or slip-sliding away,” said Paul Nolte, director of investments at Hinsdale Associates. “We’re still suffering a little bit of a hangover from [June's] employment numbers. Maybe the economy isn’t growing as much as we thought.”

Crude, Financials Tumble
Wall Street managed to shake off another ugly day for the crumbling commodities complex. Crude oil suffered its steepest one-day slide since April 20 after the release of a mixed oil-inventory report from the government.
Oil fell $2.79 a barrel, or 4.43%, to $60.14 -- its lowest settle since May 19. The new data showed crude stockpiles slid by more than expected last week while gasoline inventories climbed more than twice as much as forecasted. At the same time, oil was under pressure from OPEC, which cut its global oil demand forecast for 2013 by 5.7 million barrels per day.
Financial stocks also weighed on Wall Street, tumbling almost 2% as a sector. Goldman Sachs (GS) andMorgan Stanley (MS) fell sharply after Sanford Bernstein lowered its second-quarter guidance on the former investment banks.

Global Markets
European stocks slumped for the third-straight day. London's FTSE 100 tumbled 1.12% to 4140.23, France'sCAX 40 lost 1.27% to 3009.71 and Germany's DAX climbed 0.56% to 4572.65.
Asian markets ended in the red overnight. Japan's Nikkei 225 plunged 2.35% to 9420.75 and Hong Kong'sHang Seng slid 0.79% to 17721.07.