Bears Prowl Wall Street Wall Street suffered a late-day setback on Tuesday as financial stocks tumbled ahead of the close, erasing a rally that had been fueled by robust earnings and signs consumers have regained some confidence.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.57 points, or 0.03%, to 10194.29.
The Dow had been up nearly 100 points earlier on Tuesday as the bulls cheered big earnings beats from Apple, Travelers and the upbeat economic data. The last-minute slide didn't appear to be sparked by any specific news.
Instead, it underscores the wait-and-see game being played by the markets ahead of President Obama's State of the Union speech, a likely vote on Ben Bernanke's reappointment as chairman of the Federal Reserve and the conclusion of the Fed's policy meeting.
The late-day wave of selling overshadowed enthusiasm for a new report from the Conference Board that showed consumer confidence soared in January to the highest level since the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers in Sept. 2008. U.S. stocks fell 5 percent in a three-day span to close out last week after the Obama administration proposed new restrictions on large banks.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX fell 4.61 points, or 0.42 percent, to 1,092.17. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC lost 7.07 points, or 0.32 percent, to 2,203.73.
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