Stocks Stage End-Of-Day Slide

U.S. stocks turned lower in the afternoon trade, and ended firmly in negative territory after a Federal Reserve member's pessimistic opinion on the latest quantitative easing plan spooked investors.

Speaking in Philadelphia, Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser claimed "We are unlikely to see much benefit to growth or to employment from further asset purchases."

Prior to Plosser's speech, stocks were higher on positive economic data. Pre-bell, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of prices in the 20 biggest U.S. cities was released, and showed that prices rose for the fourth straight month, adding 1.6% in July and marking their highest level in nearly two years. Prices in those cities also were up year-over-year, with the increase of 1.2% topping analyst expectations of 1.1%; 16 of the 20 cities posted year-over-year increases in July.

Other positive economic data included the Federal Housing Finance Agency's report that U.S. home prices climbed 0.2% in July, and the Conference Board's release that consumer confidence in September jumped to a seven-month high.

Commodities ended the day's session mixed. Crude futures fell 0.47% to $91.37 a barrel, while gold futures gained 0.1% to $1,766.40 an ounce.

Here's where the markets stood at end-of-day:

Dow Jones Industrial Average down 101.37 (-0.75%) to 13,457.55

S&P 500 down 15.30 (-1.05%) to 1,441.59

Nasdaq Composite Index down 43.05 (-1.36%) to 3,117.73

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

Nikkei 225 Index up 0.25%

Hang Seng Index up 0.02%

Shanghai China Composite Index down 0.19%

FTSE 100 Index up 0.47%

UPSIDE MOVERS:

(+) GENE, Says its breast cancer risk stratification test BREVAGen has been cleared for sale into the State of Florida following the grant of a permit to the company's Australian-based laboratory by the Clinical Laboratory Unit of the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration.

(+) UCFC, Near year highs after the company confirmed in a regulatory filing that its wholly owned-subsidiary, Home Savings and Loan Company of Youngstown, Ohio, has sold its assets from Home Savings to NP LLC and its affiliate to Navy Portfolio, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company.

(+) DEJ, says it has successfully drilled the first well at its 72% owned Kokopelli project in the Piceance Basin, Colorado. The well was directionally drilled to total depth 8440 feet, just below the base of the Rollins Formation.

DOWNSIDE MOVERS:

(-) GEVO, Sets a new 52-week low of $2.15 after Bloomberg reports it will shift to ethanol at its Luverne, Minnesota, plant and stop producing isobutanol, the more complex product the facility has been making since May.

(-) OMEX, Says that due to inclement weather in the North Atlantic and the commitment of equipment to another use, it's Gairsoppa and Mantola shipwreck recovery operations are now completed for 2012 and will resume in the spring of 2013.

(-) KEG, Says it expects Q3 2012 consolidated results from continuing operations to be below prior expectations.