NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks ended mixed Thursday, as investors took a breather from the recent rallies and turned cautious after a lackluster earnings report from JPMorgan Chase.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) dropped 41 points, or 0.4%, and the S& P 500 (SPX) fell 4 points, or 0.3%. Financials were among the big losers, as JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) dragged on the Dow with shares falling about 5%. Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) also sank.

Meanwhile, technology stocks were among the strongest performers. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite (COMP) was up 16 points, or 0.6%, with Nvidia (NVDA) and Micron Technology (MU, Fortune 500) gaining between about 6%.

After the closing bell, Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) reported third-quarter earnings that handily beat estimates, and said that its Google+ social network now has 40 million users. Shares spiked more than 5% in after-hours trading.

But throughout the trading day, JPMorgan's earnings results weighed on the market. The bank reported profit and revenue figures that topped Wall Street estimates, but fell from a year earlier. Investors were disappointed as CEO Jamie Dimon said the investment bank is being " extremely cautious, while navigating through this challenging economic environment."

" It's a difficult environment for banks to make money," said Dave Hinnenkamp, CEO at KDV Wealth Management. " The banking sector is facing a lot of headwinds, considering what's happening in Europe."

He added that while U.S. banks are well capitalized and in much better shape than they were in 2008, " they are still sensitive to the headlines."

JPMorgan 'cautious' as income dips

Europe's ongoing debt troubles have been weighing on Wall Street for months. A survey by CNNMoney shows that 80% of the experts agree that the most challenging hurdle for the stock market is the eurozone debt crisis.

On Thursday, Slovakia became the final euro area country to ratify overhauling the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), which is essentially a bailout for Greece and other troubled eurozone countries.

The approval was widely expected, after it had previously voted the measure down earlier this week.

Later this week, finance ministers from the world's leading economies will meet to discuss ways to strengthen the faltering global recovery, focusing on the European debt crisis.

Weaker-than-expected trade data from China also spooked investors, amid mounting concerns about a global economic slowdown. While Chinese exports were up 17.1% in September from a year earlier, that was weaker than the 24.5% annual increase in the previous month and below most forecasts, according to reports.

With little other news to lift the mood on Wall Street, investors hit the pause button after solid gains over the last week.

On Wednesday, stocks finished sharply higher, as investors grew optimistic about a resolution for Europe's debt crisis, after European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso announced a plan to recapitalize European banks.

Wednesday's advance was the sixth out of the last seven days for the S& P 500 and Nasdaq, and fifth for the Dow. The three major indexes are up between 8% and 11% since Oct. 3, when stocks hit their lowest levels in more than a year.

Companies: Research in Motion (RIMM) shares continued to struggle, after the BlackBerry-maker company's worst-ever outage that started in Europe on Monday. RIM said BlackBerry service has been fully restored worldwide Thursday morning.

Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) stock ticked higher. The company's iPhone 4S goes on sale in Apple stores Friday, as well Sprint (S, Fortune 500), Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) and AT& T (T, Fortune 500) locations and select Best Buy (BBY, Fortune 500), Target (TGT, Fortune 500) and Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) stores. The pre-order of the iPhone 4S was wildly successful, topping 1 million sales in 24 hours.

Raj Rajaratnam, former manager of the the defunct hedge fund Galleon Group, was sentenced on Thursday to 11 years in federal prison and fined $10 million for insider trading.

Congress passes trade deals

Economy: First-time filings for unemployment benefits fell 1,000 to 404,000, according to the government's weekly report. Economists were expecting 406,000 initial jobless claims. Continuing claims slipped to 3.67 million, slightly below estimates for 3.7 million ongoing claims.

The U.S. trade deficit remained unchanged at $45.6 billion in August.

World markets: European stocks ended lower. Britain's FTSE 100 (UKX) lost 0.7%, the DAX (DAX) in Germany shaved 1.3% and France's CAC 40 (CAC40) slid 1.5%.

Asian markets ended higher. The Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP) ticked up 0.8%, the Hang Seng (HSI) in Hong Kong jumped 2.3% and Japan's Nikkei (N225) added 1%.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar gained against the euro and British pound, but slipped against the Japanese yen.

Peanut butter prices get nutty - StockTwits

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury edged slightly higher, pushing the yield down to 2.18% from 2.23% late Wednesday.  

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A broad rally lost steam during the final minutes of trading, but stocks still ended sharply higher Wednesday as investors welcomed the latest plan to recapitalize European banks.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said Wednesday that policymakers need to act immediately to resolve the long-running crisis. Barroso also said that banks that do not satisfy capital requirements should be barred from paying out dividends and bonuses.

" We still don't have a concrete plan, but it seems like officials have more of a sense of urgency and are talking about credible solutions, which is exactly what the market needs," said Hogan.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) rose 102 points, or 0.9%, the S& P 500 (SPX) added 12 points, or 1%, and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) gained 22 points, or 0.8%. Earlier in the session, all three indexes were up about 2%, and the the Dow briefly turned positive for the year.

Barroso calls for immediate action on debt crisis

Financial stocks were leading the gains, with JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) up between 2% and 5%.

Stocks have been climbing since the start of the month as hopes for a solution to Europe's debt crisis continue to grow.

Wednesday's advance was the sixth out of the last seven days for the S& P 500 and Nasdaq, and fifth for the Dow. The three major indexes are up between 8% and 11% since Oct. 3, when stocks hit their lowest levels in more than a year.

Every development overseas is getting investors' front-and-center attention. More than 80% of the experts surveyed by CNNMoney agree that debt problems overseas are the most challenging hurdle for the market.

U.S. stocks ended mixed Tuesday as investors spent most of the day waiting for the outcome of Slovakian parliament's vote to overhaul the EFSF. Shortly after U.S. markets closed Tuesday, Slovakia voted the measure down.

The proposed bailout needs to be ratified by all 17 eurozone nations, and Slovakia was the last country to vote. Investors expect that in its second round of voting later this week, with a new government in place, Slovakia will manage to pass the bailout, said Hogan.

Companies: Shares of Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500) slipped after the aluminum producer reported quarterly income that fell short of analysts' expectations, but the company brought in more revenue than anticipated.

PepsiCo (PEP, Fortune 500)'s stock rose after the company reported stronger revenue Wednesday on global snack and beverage volume. PepsiCo also saw gains from its the acquisition of Wimm-Bill-Dann, a Russian dairy and juice company.

Overall, S& P 500 company earnings are expected to have climbed almost 13% in the third quarter of 2011, according to earnings tracker Thomson Reuters. Revenue of the companies in the benchmark index are expected to have risen 10%.

Meanwhile, shares of Liz Claiborne (LIZ) surged after the apparel and accessories maker announced it is selling several of its brands for $328 million. J.C. Penney (JCP, Fortune 500) is buying the company's namesake Liz Claiborne brand as well as the Monet brand. Liz Claiborne also sold its Dana Buchman brand to Kohl's (KSS, Fortune 500).

Shares of Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) moved higher after company executives told an annual meeting for analysts that same-store sales have been positive for the past three months. Sales at the world's largest retailer have been declining for nine straight quarters. Wal-Mart is scheduled to report third-quarter results next month.

Research in Motion's (RIMM) stock dipped as the BlackBerry outage that started on Monday in Europe, the Middle East and Africa continued to spread, hitting customers in the United States and Canada on Wednesday.

Economy: Federal Reserve policymakers left the door open to another round of asset purchases, or QE3, in the near future, according to minutes of their most recent meeting. In September, the central bank stopped short of expanding its balance sheet and launched so-called Operation Twist, a program to shift assets from short-term Treasuries into long-term Treasuries.

The U.S. Senate failed Tuesday to approve President Obama's jobs bill. The 50-49 vote in favor of the measure fell short of the 60 senators needed to advance the $447 billion dollar plan.

The city council of Harrisburg, Pa., voted to file for bankruptcy protection Tuesday night. The state capital of Pennsylvania, with just under 50,000 residents, was facing a possible takeover of its operations by the state government under a receivership.

World markets: European stocks finished with strong gains. Britain's FTSE 100 (UKX) ticked up 0.7%, the DAX (DAX) in Germany gained 2% and France's CAC 40 (CAC40) added 2.2%.

Asian markets ended mixed. The Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP) jumped 3% and the Hang Seng (HSI) in Hong Kong added 1%, while Japan's Nikkei (N225) slipped 0.4%.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar lost ground against the euro and the British pound, but rose versus the Japanese yen.

Oil for November delivery fell 24 cents to settle at $85.57 a barrel.

Gold futures for December delivery rose $21.60 to $1,682.60 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, pushing the yield up to 2.23% from 2.16% late Tuesday. 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks ended mixed Tuesday, with a technology sector rally bucking a broader decline, as investors await the next step after Slovakia voted against overhauling the European bailout fund.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell 17 points, or 0.1%, to end at 11,416. The S& P 500 (SPX) ended little changed at 1,195. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) gained 17 points, or 0.6%, to 2,583.

The choppy trading came a day after stocks rallied sharply, as investors cheered a pledge from European leaders to unveil a plan for solving the eurozone's debt crisis by the end of the month.

Stocks have advanced on four of the last five trading days, amid cautious optimism that a state-sponsored rescue of European banks is in the works.

The gains reflect a concerted effort by Germany and France to say 'we've got this one, we're going to get this figured out,'" said Art Hogan, managing director at Lazard Capital Markets.

But the tone remains cautious. All day, investors were eagerly awaiting the outcome of the deeply divided Slovakian parliament's vote to overhaul the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) -- essentially a bailout fund for the region's most troubled nations. Shortly after U.S. markets closed Slovakia voted the measure down.

The reforms needed to be ratified by all 17 eurozone nations, and Slovakia was the last country to vote.

" Any delay in plans to stabilize the euro zone and further enhance governments' ability to bailout banks and countries in need is certainly not comforting for the markets," said Kate Warne, chief investment strategist with Edward Jones.

In another reminder of Europe's debt problems, Standard & Poor's cut the credit ratings or lowered the outlook on 15 Spanish banks.

Meanwhile, international monitors in Greece completed a review of the nation's finances, suggesting the latest installment of bailout money could be disbursed in early November.

Volcker rule raises more questions

In the United States, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. released a draft of the Volcker Rule, which intends to take risky bets out of the financial system in hopes of preventing another crisis. The rule aims to rein in how banks use their own accounts to chase profits -- so-called proprietary trading.

Companies: Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500) reported quarterly income that fell short of analysts' expectations, but the company brought in more revenue than anticipated.

The aluminum producer is the first blue-chip company to report results in the quarterly event known as earning season.

Shares of Dollar Thrifty (DTG) fell 1.8% after the rental car company said it plans to remain an independent company after seeking a buyer for over a year. Avis dropped out of the running last month, and Hertz (HTZ, Fortune 500) didn't raise its offer.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar rose against the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen.

Oil for November delivery gained 48 cents to $85.89 a barrel.

Gold futures for December delivery edged up 20 cents to $1,671 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, pushing the yield up to 2.16% from 2.07% late Friday.

The bond market was closed Monday for Columbus Day.

World markets: European stocks closed mixed. Britain's FTSE 100 (UKX) was flat and France's CAC 40 (CAC40) shed 0.2%, while the DAX (DAX) in Germany added 0.3%.

Asian markets ended higher. The Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP) rose 0.2%, the Hang Seng (HSI) in Hong Kong jumped 2.4%, and Japan's Nikkei (N225) gained 2%.

Markets were reacting to Monday's news that China's sovereign wealth fund's investment arm purchased shares of four state-owned banks: Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank.  

 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks rallied strongly Monday as investors cheered a pledge from European leaders to unveil a plan for solving the eurozone's debt crisis by the end of the month.

Over the weekend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said they have come up with a plan to get Europe's festering debt problems under control. The plan, which will include recapitalizing European banks, will be presented to world leaders at the G20 meeting in Cannes Nov. 3 and 4.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) gained 329 points, or 2.9%, to close at 11,433. The S& P 500 (SPX) added 39 points, or 3.4%, to 1,195. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) rose 86 points, or 3.5%, 2,566.

All 30 Dow components were higher, and only a handful of S& P 500 companies traded in the red, including Sprint and Netflix.

French banks Credit Agricole, Societe Generale and BNP Paribas finished up between 3% to 7%. Shares of Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) gained between 3% and 7%.

" The Europe debt crisis cloud has been hanging over the market for a year-and-a-half now," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James. " The risks and worries have been intensifying over the last couple of weeks, but after this weeknd, the market is expecting something big and concrete that will put the crisis behind us."

While talk of a strategy is encouraging, the lack of details is still concerning.

" There is still a healthy bill of skepticism because we've been here before -- many times before," said Michael Hewson, analyst at CMC Markets in London. " All Merkel and Sarkozy have done is reiterated their statements from earlier, and kicked the can down to Cannes."

Meanwhile, troubled Franco-Belgian bank Dexia became the first casualty of the eurozone's money woes. On Monday, the bank accepted a €90 billion joint bailout from France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Europe's debt crisis: 5 things you need to know

Investors have been quick to react to headlines concerning Europe's debt crisis.

" Dexia passed the stress test earlier this summer with flying colors -- yet here we are now, three months later, and it needs a bailout," said Hewson. " I think that begs the question as to whether Dexia is a special case, or if it's one in a long line of other bailouts.

On Friday, U.S. stocks ended lower as downgrades for Italy, Spain and 12 U.K. financial institutions overshadowed a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market.

World markets: European stocks finished higher. Britain's FTSE 100 (UKX) added 1.8%, the DAX (DAX) in Germany gained 3%, and France's CAC 40 (CAC40) climbed 2%.

Asian markets ended mixed. The Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP) slipped 0.6%, while the Hang Seng (HSI) in Hong Kong inched higher. Tokyo was closed for holiday.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar lost ground against the British pound and Japanese yen.

Oil for November delivery rose $2.43 to $85.41 a barrel.

Gold futures for December delivery added $35 to $1,670.80 an ounce.

Companies: Sprint's (S, Fortune 500) stock tumbled after six banks downgraded the stock -- the selling followed a 20% slide on Friday. Sprint said it is running out of money and may need to draw down its credit line or raise more capital to fund itself.

Netflix (NFLX) shares turned lower after an initial rally as the company ditched a plan announced last month to spin off its DVD streaming business and rename it Qwikster.

Shares of Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) climbed, as talk about a possible buyout of the struggling company continued to swirl. Following chatter that Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba were considering a bid for Yahoo, Reuters reported that the company could also be sold to a private-equity firm.

Dow components Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500) and JPMorgan Chase report quarterly financial results later this week, as well Pepsico (PEP, Fortune 500) and Google (GOOG, Fortune 500). All four heavyweights are among the S& P 500 companies.

Overall earnings for the companies in the S& P 500 are expected to be up 12.6% in the third quarter versus the same period last year, according to analysts at S& P Capital IQ.

Bonds: The bond market is closed for Columbus Day.