Euro zone chatter triggers late selloff

By Angela Moon

France's President Nicholas Sarkozy said on Wednesday that talks to tackle the euro zone crisis were stuck as they struggled to increase the bailout fund's firepower, while a Wall Street Journal report said Europe's bailout fund could be used to provide collateral to back up bond issues by troubled countries. For details, see

On Tuesday, stocks rallied on late news suggesting euro zone leaders had a big package in place for rescuing indebted nations.

A weak economic outlook from the U.S. Federal Reserve was responsible for the initial move lower on Wednesday afternoon.

Technology stocks were the biggest losers after a rare earnings miss from tech heavyweight Apple.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 75.49 points, or 0.65 percent, at 11,501.56. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was down 15.63 points, or 1.28 percent, at 1,209.75. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was down 54.41 points, or 2.05 percent, at 2,603.02.

On the upside, Intel Corp <INTC.O> hit a new 52-week high of $24.50 earlier after the chipmaker forecast quarterly revenue above expectations.

The stock closed up 3.6 percent at $24.24.

Travelers Cos Inc <TRV.N> advanced 5.7 percent to $54.39 after it said it will ramp up a share buyback dramatically.

Earlier, economic data showed U.S. consumer prices outside food and energy rose at their slowest pace in six months while groundbreaking on new homes rose at the fastest rate in 1-1/2 years. Stocks barely budged after the data.

Trading volume was at 7.8 billion shares on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq, lower than the year's daily average so far of about 8 billion.

On the NYSE, decliners beat advancers by a ratio of about 3 to 1. On the Nasdaq, about four stocks fell for every one that rose.

(Reporting by Angela Moon, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)