Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Stocks ended broadly lower. The Dow fell 186 points to 7,790. The S&P lost 20 points and the Nasdaq was down 45 points.

Wall Street is extending its losses into a second day as investors refrain from making big bets ahead of first-quarter earnings reports.

Analysts attributed the pullback to profit-taking after a huge advance in March that gave the Dow Jones industrials their best four-week performance in more than 75 years.

Investors are still waiting on more details on the health of the financial industry and are focused keenly on bank earnings that start coming in next week. Meanwhile, aluminum giant Alcoa kicks off earnings season with its report Tuesday afternoon.

At midday, the Dow is down 135 to 7,839. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is down 11 to 823, while the Nasdaq composite index is down 24 to 1,582.