Stocks ended lower Tuesday in a day of dramatic swings.
The Nasdaq started the day out modestly lower, rallied to briefly touch a new multi-year high, and then sold off to close at its lows in a nearly 2% price swing.
The Dow and S&P suffered similar fates after challenging their May 2001 highs.
The culprit was a mixed wholesale inflation report and guarded comments from new Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that gave traders no clarity on the interest rate picture. The Federal Reserve will meet next week and will likely continue its nearly two-year rate hike campaign.
Oracle, meanwhile, ended the day off its worst levels, losing 0.7% after missing Wall Street sales estimates.
The Nasdaq lost 20 to 2294, the S&P 500 fell 8 to 1297, and the Dow lost 39 to 11,235. Volume rose to 2.14 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.42 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 23-9 on the NYSE, and 20-10 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 71% on the NYSE, and 66% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 136-47 on the NYSE, and 150-44 on the Nasdaq.
Rambusgained 5% after raising guidance.
Nvidiaclimbed 5% on an upgrade.
Progress Softwarelost 4% on its results.
Neteasefell 4% on a downgrade.
Actions Semilost 13% on an adverse patent ruling.