Bernanke's remarks dampen stock market

NEW YORK, July 14 (UPI) -- News that a third economic stimulus was unlikely sent U.S. stock indexes lower Thursday for the fourth time in five sessions.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended its roller-coaster day down 54.49 points, or 0.44 percent, at 12,437.12. Early morning trading saw the index gain as many as 90 points.

The Nasdaq lost 34.25 points, or 1.22 percent, to end the session at 2,762.67.

The Standard & Poor's 500 dipped 8.85 points, or 0.67 percent, to 1,308.87.

Stocks began tumbling in late-morning trading after Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke told a Senate Panel the Fed was "not prepared at this point to take further action," even though it has a plan in place if more stimulus were needed.

"The market is saying, in the absence of really strong economic growth, the one thing [that] we had has been this monetary loosening," Christian Thwaites, president and chief executive at Sentinel Investments, told The Wall Street Journal.

Stock indexes traded higher earlier in the day on news that 405,000 new claims for jobless benefits were filed last week, down about 22,000 from the previous week. Other economic data released by the federal government indicated retail sales for June rose 0.1 percent and producer prices were down 0.4 percent for the month.

The listed volume on the New York Stock Exchange was 3.48 billion shares. Decliners outnumbered advancers 2,400 to 640.

The 10-year treasury note was 2.95 percent.

The euro was $1.4143, up from $1.414 Wednesday. Against the yen, the dollar was 79.0845 from 78.985 yen on Wednesday.

In London, the FTSE 100 closed at 5.846.95, off 59.48.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei Average closed at 9.936.12, down 27.02.