Wall Street took another major hit today as stocks reversed Tuesday’s dramatic rebound with an equally dramatic loss that more than wiped out Tuesday’’s gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day down 520 points, or 4.63 percent, putting the blue-chip index below the 11,000 level it had broken through Tuesday and closing at its lowest level this year. The Standard & Poor’s 500, a broader market measure, ended the day down about 52 points, or 4.42 percent, while the Nasdaq, a more tech-heavy index, was down about 101 points, or 4.09 percent.

All three indexes had ended Tuesday up more than 4 percent, fueling hope that the market might soon find a floor and avoid more heavy selling.

But today’s reversal signals more volatile trading is likely to come just a day after the Federal Reserve announced it would keep its ultra-low interest rate policies in place for two more years. It also puts in question the strength of Tuesday’s late-session rally, which restored early losses after the Federal Reserve announcement and put the Dow up 429 points for the day, or a gain of nearly 4 percent, the largest in two years.

In Europe, underlying fears about the global economy already caussed a stock market rally to peter out today ay while in Asia markets mostly closed higher, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 index posting a gain of more than 1 percent after trading lower all this week.

“The market is caught at the moment between the short term-focused trading and day-to-day events like the Fed announcement yesterday and European concerns today versus longer-term money willing to make a commitment over time,” said Kevin Caron, market strategist for the private client group at Stifel Nicolaus in Florham Park, N.J.

Until the market sees credible evidence of improved economic conditions, patient, long-term investors will continue to stay on the sidelines and stocks will continue to be “subject to the vicissitudes of short-term trading gyrations,” Caron predicted.


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