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After two days of volatility, stocks stabilized on Wednesday as the markets fell slightly, giving back only a slice of Tuesday’s 150-point surge.

Today’s Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 20.26 points, or 0.2%, to 10038.38, the Standard & Poor's 500 sank 2.39 points, or 0.22%, to 1068.13 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 3 points, or 0.14%, to 2147.87.

The markets ended well off their worst levels as the Dow tumbled as much as 100 points after the Federal Reserve released Ben Bernanke's testimony about the central bank's "exit strategy."

"Obviously Bernanke's comments about raising rates sent a shiver through the markets early. But financials really didn't pull back that much on those comments," said Michael James, senior equities trader at Wedbush Morgan Securities. The markets are showing "surprising resilience," he said. 

At the same time, the markets were digesting new details about a potential rescue of Greece from its debt mess. Reports of a rescue in the works sent the Dow soaring 150 points higher on Tuesday, good for the index's second-biggest point gain of 2010. The prior day sovereign debt worries sparked a triple-digit decline on the blue-chip index.

It's tough to put too much stock into Wednesday’s market action as trading volume was very low due to a blizzard slamming the New York area. The storm wasn't enough to close the New York Stock Exchange, which hasn't been forced to close early due to weather in 14 years.

The Dow, which had been down nearly 100 points earlier, was led lower by Pfizer (PFE) and Home Depot (HD). The index's biggest percentage winners were JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC). 

Stocks hit session lows after the release of Bernanke’s testimony, in which the Fed chief said the central bank may increase the discount rate and boost interest on bank reserves as main policy targets before hiking the fed funds rate. Bernanke said the timing of rate hikes will depend on the strength of the economy.

The Fed is in the midst of a careful balancing act of keeping interest rates low to stimulate the economy but not so long as to cause a spike in inflation. 

"Put on your seat belt when all this begins," Peter Boockvar, equity market strategist at Miller Tabak, wrote in a note. 

New details emerged overnight about a potential rescue of Greece, whose soaring deficits have weighed on global markets amid fears of a default. According to The Wall Street Journal, Germany and its European Union partners, including France, are considering offering Greece and other troubled euro-zone countries loan guarantees to ease default fears and prevent the crisis from spreading. While EU leaders are expected to discuss a rescue at a summit on Thursday, nothing concrete has been announced yet.

Markets in Europe rose sharply on the news, including a surge in Greece’s main stock market. Worries that Europe’s debt situation would derail the economic recovery or even cause a double-dip recession have spooked the markets in recent weeks.

Commodities settled off session lows. Crude oil closed up 77 cents a barrel, or 1.04%, to $74.52 a barrel but gold fell 90 cents a troy ounce , or 0.08%, to $1075.80 a troy ounce. 

Corporate Movers

CME Group (CME) is close to purchasing Dow Jones Indexes from News Corp. (NWSA) for more than $600 million, the Journal reported. The Dow Jones name would remain in use for such products as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the paper reported. News Corp. is the parent of FOX Business and the Journal.

Google (GOOG) unveiled plans to launch an experimental ultra high-speed broadband network in the U.S. that will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today. The network will have speeds of 1 gigabit per second and be offered at a “competitive price” to at least 50,000 people.

Sprint Nextel (S) narrowed its net loss to $980 million, or 34 cents a share, but said its revenue slid to a worse-than-expected $8.43 billion last quarter. Sprint lost 148,000 subscribers last quarter after having lost 545,000 the prior period.

New York Times Co. (NYT) tripled its profits thanks to one-time gains. The publisher’s non-GAAP EPS of 44 cents and revenue of $681.2 million beat estimates.

Global Markets

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 closed up 0.39% to 5131.99, France's CAC 40 gained 0.63% to 3635.61, and Germany's DAX rallied 0.69% to 5536.37. 

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% to 9963.99, Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed up 0.67% to 19922.22 and China's Shanghai Composite jumped 1.14% to 2982.50.