Lifted by another late-day comeback, the Dow closed with just slight losses Tuesday and the Nasdaq Composite ended in the green for the 14th time of the last 15 sessions despite an ominous report on consumer confidence.

Today’s Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 11.79 points, or 0.13%, to 9096.72, the Standard & Poor's 500 fell 2.56 points, or 0.26%, to 979.62 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 7.62 points, or 0.39%, to 1975.51. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 added 0.01 points, or less than 0.01%, to 717.98.

The disappointing consumer confidence report initially sent the Dow down more than 100 points and nearly overshadowed new data that showed U.S. home prices climbed on a monthly basis in June for the first time in three years. 

“Clearly we’ve had a huge move, almost 1,000 points, from where we were just a couple of weeks ago. We’re certainly due for a pullback,” NYSE trader Ted Weisberg of Seaport Securities told FOX Business. “Certainly the economic news today was less than robust. But even though we’re down, the market looks like it kind of wants to hang in there.”

After closing in the green in 10 of the past 11 days, the markets struggled for most of Tuesday amid conflicting economic gauges and a mixed batch of earnings reports from companies like Viacom (VIA) and Office Depot (ODP). But for the second-straight day, the markets saw a burst of last-minute buying, erasing nearly all of the Dow's triple-digit tumble. 

The markets have been on a hot streak ince July 13 thanks to a very strong start to earnings season. The renewed optimism sent the Dow to its best two-week stretch since 2000 and to levels unseen since early November. 

“We’ve had such an explosive move over the last two weeks that you can't stay up at these levels without at least a little bit of a pause,” said Michael James, senior equity trader at Wedbush Morgan Securities, who said it doesn’t “feel like” the markets are going to give back more than a few percentage points of their recent surge. “The earnings reports over the last several weeks have been solid enough to justify the market not pulling back too much.”

Almost half of the Dow's 30 components closed in positive territory Tuesday, led by Bank of America (BAC) and Boeing (BA). On the downside, drug giants Pfizer (PFE) and Merck (MRK) tumbled more than 2% a piece. 

On the economic front, the bulls were disappointed by the Conference Board's consumer confidence survey, which fell to 46.6 in July, down from 49.3 in June. Analysts had forecasted a more modest decline to 49. Wall Street closely watches consumer confidence data as consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy. The new report weighed on consumer discretionary stocks like Apple (AAPL) and Ford (F).

The markets failed to rally around the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which showed U.S. home prices in May increased month-to-month for the first time since the summer of 2006. The 20-city home indicator rose by 0.5% from April, however it remains down 17.1% from a year ago. Likewise, the 10-city index climbed 0.4% from April but is off by 16.8% from May 2008. Shares of home builders like Centex (CTX) and Lennar (LEN) closed mixed after surging on Monday.

With crude oil's three-day win streak ending, energy stocks like Schlumberger (SLB) were some of the biggest drags on Wall Street as the sector slumped nearly 1.5%. After gaining more than 4% over the past three session, crude fell $1.15 a barrel, or 1.68%, to $67.23. The energy sector wasn't helped by the latest earnings reports as BP (BP) said it is increasing its cost savings target by 50% amid a 53% dive in profits and Valero (VLO) suffered a quarterly loss. 

After a stellar start to earnings season helped send stocks soaring over the past two weeks, the markets have received a mixed cluster of quarterly results this week. 

That was the case again Tuesday as U.S. Steel (X) beat the Street but the company still swung to a quarterly loss and was cautious about the chances of a second-half economic recovery. At the same time, German financial titan Deutsche Bank (DB) disappointed shareholders with a weaker-than-expected quarterly profit and higher loan losses. And Office Depot's (ODP) shares were in freefall after the retailer disclosed more red ink than Wall Street had been bracing for.

Meanwhile, the equities markets again kept an eye on the bond markets as the Treasury Department continued its record-breaking $115 billion worth of auctions this week with a sale of $42 billion of two-year notes Tuesday afternoon. Analysts deemed the auction mixed as demand was above average but the yield was higher than before the sale and the ratio of indirect bidders was relatively low. The markets will likely pay more attention to a pair of longer-term auctions later in the week that will be better gauges of the government's ability to finance its heavy debt load.

Corporate Movers

IBM (IBM) inked a deal to acquire data mining and analysis firm SPSS (SPSS) for $1.2 billion, or $50 per share in cash, a 42% premium to the company's closing price on Monday. IBM said it sees the deal closing in the second half of this year. The tech giant also unveiled plans to acquire closely-held software maker Ounce Labs.

General Electric (GE) said it will not have to raise new capital for its GE Capital finance unit, even under the most distressed scenarios. Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported the Obama administration is considering a regulatory change that would provide tighter oversight of GE Capital.

US Steel (X) reported a better-than-expected quarterly loss of $2.92 a share but its revenue of $2.1 billion missed estimates. The largest U.S. steelmaker warned of a loss for the current quarter and said overall demand for steel remains "uncertain" and the "timing and magnitude of sustained a economic recovery remain difficult to forecast."

Deutsche Bank (DB) tumbled 10% even after the German banking titan posted a 68% surge in quarterly profit. But analysts had expected a stronger profit and the bank’s loan losses soared from 135 million euros last year to 1 billion euros

Office Depot (ODP) lost nearly one-fifth of its market cap after the office supplies retailer disappointed the Street with a wider-than-expected loss. Office Depot posted an adjusted-loss of 22 cents per share, 10 cents worse than analysts had been bracing for.

Sprint Nextel (S) will purchase prepaid mobile phone company Virgin Mobile USA (VM) for $483 million. The $5.50-a-share offer represents a 13.1% premium from Virgin Mobile’s closing price Monday and includes the value of Sprint’s current 13.1% stake in the company. Sprint will also retire Virgin Mobile’s outstanding debt.

Vornado Realty Trust (VNO) is planning to raise up to $600 million through a commercial mortgage-backed securities deal that could tap one of the Federal Reserve’s TALF program, which has yet to be used for CMBS deals, the Journal reported.   

McGraw-Hill (MHP) lodged a 23% decline in net income and slashed its 2009 earnings guidance. The owner of BusinessWeek and Standard & Poor's reported an adjusted-profit of 58 cents per share. Analysts were looking for 55 cents per share but it’s not clear if those figures are comparable.

Viacom (VIA) said its net income tumbled 32% but the media giant’s adjusted-profit of 49 cents per share beat the Street by a penny. The owner of Comedy Central and MTV suffered a worse-than-expected 14% decline in revenue to $3.3 billion. 

Coach (COH) disclosed a 32% slide in quarterly net income but the leather goods company’s adjusted-profit of 43 cents per share matched estimates. Coach’s sales fell less than 1% to $781.5 million.

MetLife (MET) tumbled more than 3% in the wake of a downgrade from Bank of America–Merrill Lynch. The analysts downgraded the insurer to “neutral” from “buy.”

Global Markets

Ending an 11-day win streak, London's FTSE 100 tumbled 1.25% to 4528.84. France's CAC 40 fell 1.23% to 3330.97 and Germany's DAX sank 1.46% to 5174.74. 

Asian markets closed mixed as Japan's Nikkei 225 ended unchanged at 10087.26 but Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.84% to 20624.54 and China's Shanghai Composite advanced 0.09% to 3438.37.