Euro Slide Holds Markets Back

The Dow inched higher and attempted to close at fresh two-year highs Wednesday afternoon, but the S&P 500 lagged behind as the euro tumbled in the wake of Moody's threatening to downgrade Spain's credit rating. Today's Markets As of 2:04 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 21.84 points, or 0.19%, to 11498.11, the Standard & Poor's 500 fell 1.85 points, or 0.15%, to 1239.71 and the Nasdaq Composite slid 3.4 points, or 0.13%, to 2624.37. The FOX 50 slipped 0.69 points, or 0.08%, to 888.49. The sinking euro, which tends to move in the same direction as Wall Street, took the spotlight off of mostly upbeat economic data, including a stronger-than-expected regional manufacturing report. The choppy trading on Wall Street comes after the Dow closed solidly higher on Tuesday and at its highest level since September 2008. However, the broader markets lost most of their gains amid slumping Treasurys, marking stocks' second-straight late-day fizzle. Most Dow stocks advanced in recent trading, led by economically-sensitive Caterpillar CAT and 3M MMM. The index's weakest members were Wal-mart WMT and IBM IBM. The Nasdaq Composite turned negative in afternoon trading, dragged down by tech stocks like Baidu.com BIDU and SanDisk SNDK. Continue reading the article.