Thanks to a final-minute push, stocks ended unchanged on Wednesday as Wall Street overcame earnings jitters and crude oil's worst day in nearly three months. 

Today’s Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 14.81 points, or 0.18%, to 8178.41, the Standard & Poor's 500 lost 1.47 points, or 0.17%, to 879.56 and the Nasdaq Composite picked up 1 point, or 0.06%, to 1747.17. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 dropped 1.37 points, or 0.21%, to 654.04.

The late-day rally left traders scratching their heads but the move coincided with headlines about the government's bank-bailout plan and came after a successful 10-year auction by the Treasury Department. 

Wall Street appeared poised to end at fresh 10-week lows before the late-day rally amid earnings and economic jitters. The markets have given back almost 30% of their surge from the March lows as recent pessimism has reinforced the notion that stocks got ahead of the still-weak economy.

“There are a lot of questions around whether the economy is really regaining its footing or slip-sliding away,” said Paul Nolte, director of investments at Hinsdale Associates. “We’re still suffering a little bit of a hangover from [June's] employment numbers. Maybe the economy isn’t growing as much as we thought.”

Most of the Dow's 30 components ended higher, led by defensive stocks Merck (MRK) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). On the downside, financial stocks General Electric (GE) and Bank of America (BAC) tumbled 2% a piece. 

The afternoon comeback was the latest last-minute move that appeared to be mostly unprovoked.

“This is nothing new. We’ve seen moves like this multiple times in the last half-hour without anything to account for it,” said Michael James, senior equity trader at Wedbush Morgan Securities. “There really doesn’t need to be a reason. For whatever reason, guys either decided they needed to be more long or less short and cover.”

In any case, stocks turned green Wednesday after the Treasury Department said it has selected nine fund managers for its PPIP bailout program, including BlackRock (BLK) and Invesco (IVZ). Financial stocks like Bank of America (BAC) and Goldman Sachs (GS) trimmed their losses on the news. The fund managers will have 12 weeks to raise $500 million for the program, which is aimed at unloading banks' toxic assets.

Before the afternoon rally, the markets had been under pressure from earnings apprhension as aluminum titan Alcoa (AA) is set to kick off earnings season after the closing bell. Expectations are for more ugly numbers this earnings season as Standard & Poor’s predicts seven of the S&P 500’s 10 sectors will report annual profit declines. 

Worries about higher interest rates hurting a potential economic recovery were further eased Wednesday after the $19 billion note auction saw solid demand. In the aftermath, bond markets rallied, pushing the yield on the 10-year note to its lowest level since late May. 

“I think this turnaround to the plus side, which has people shaking their heads, is a delayed result of the well-received 10-year auction. The prospect of higher rates really has the markets spooked,” said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital Markets. “It just took a little bit of time for that to seep into the brew.”

Crude, Financials Tumble

Wall Street managed to shake off another ugly day for the crumbling commodities complex. Crude oil suffered its steepest one-day slide since April 20 after the release of a mixed oil-inventory report from the government.

Oil fell $2.79 a barrel, or 4.43%, to $60.14 -- its lowest settle since May 19. The new data showed crude stockpiles slid by more than expected last week while gasoline inventories climbed more than twice as much as forecasted. At the same time, oil was under pressure from OPEC, which cut its global oil demand forecast for 2013 by 5.7 million barrels per day.

Financial stocks also weighed on Wall Street, tumbling almost 2% as a sector. Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) fell sharply after Sanford Bernstein lowered its second-quarter guidance on the former investment banks.

Corporate Movers

Google (GOOG) unveiled plans of a direct assault on software titan Microsoft (MSFT) by launching its own PC operating system next year. Initially targeted at netbooks, the new system, called Chrome, will eventually be sold for PCs.

General Motors is "unlikely" to close its asset sale to the new GM by Thursday, a source told FOX Business. Instead, the sale could close on Friday, the source suggested, pointing out that opponents and creditors have until noon Thursday to file appeals. In either case, GM appears poised to emerge from bankruptcy at a faster pace than many expected.

Rio Tinto (RTP) is nearing a deal to unload its packaging assets to Australia’s Amcor for $2.3 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move would dramatically expand Amcor’s operations and comes as Rio Tinto is aiming to shed assets and repay debt, the paper reported.

Apple (AAPL) is still under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission over whether or not it misled investors over the medical condition of CEO Steve Jobs, Bloomberg News reported. SEC investigators reportedly want to know what Apple’s board knew when Jobs’s condition went from “relatively simple” to “more complex” in the span of nine days in January.

UBS (UBS) may be shielded from a U.S. tax evasion probe by the Swiss government, which said it will seize UBS client data, if necessary, to prevent the bank from disclosing account info to the U.S. 

Amgen (AMGN) surged double-digit percentages a day after the biotech giant said denosumab, its osteoporosis drug, won a cancer trial. A late-stage study showed the drug reduced and delayed serious bone complications in patients with advanced breast cancer.

Family Dollar (FDO) raised its full-year earnings view after the discount retailer posted a better-than-expected 36% increase in quarterly profit. Family Dollar also forecasted in-line or better-than-expected results for the current quarter.

NRG Energy (NRG) turned down Exelon’s (EXC) sweetened attempt to acquire the power producer in a hostile takeover. NRG, which also upgraded its 2009 earnings guidance, said the new offer is still too low even though it’s 12% above Exelon’s earlier bid.

Discover Financial (DFS) rebounded from Tuesday’s plunge after the credit card company sold $480 million of common equity at a 12% discount from Monday’s close.

Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) exceeded estimates with an adjusted-profit of 78 cents per share in the second quarter thanks to cost-cutting moves and price hikes. The bottler also said it sees an annual profit at the high end of its earlier guidance.

Global Markets

European stocks slumped for the third-straight day. London's FTSE 100 tumbled 1.12% to 4140.23, France's CAX 40 lost 1.27% to 3009.71 and Germany's DAX climbed 0.56% to 4572.65.

Asian markets ended in the red overnight. Japan's Nikkei 225 plunged 2.35% to 9420.75 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 0.79% to 17721.07.