Stocks Teeter, Dive Before Bell

Stocks wavered throughout today's session, finally falling well into the red before the bell. Despite relatively good news from the financial sector—including a hopeful outlook from Bear Stearns—surging oil prices and profit-taking in the tech sector brought the markets down. The Dow was off 83.16 to 13,223.93, the Nasdaq 29.33 to 2,644.32, and the S&P 10.46 to 1470.58.

Comments from analysts reflected the ambiguous day. "I think there's been a realization in the market that we're going to avoid the toilet swirl of recession," a bank exec told the Wall Street Journal, but added, "I'm pretty worried about inflation." A report on inflation at the retail level is due out tomorrow morning, and appears sure to generate plenty of interest. (More stock market stories.)