Wednesday

Stocks dropped broadly after Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman, said the central bank is not prepared to consider further stimulus in the near future despite what he called an "unusually uncertain" outlook. This pessimistic outlook came as a surprise because many people had been expecting Bernanke to further stimulate lending, which is what helped stocks rally yesterday. This disappointing report outweighed the effects of better-than-expected second-quarter earnings from a number of companies, which extended a generally upbeat picture from the U.S. corporate world. DJIA -109.43 Nasdaq -35.16 S&P 500 -13.89.