Once Again, a Fast Start's Been Undercut by Doubt

Stocks rallied sharply early Wednesday, but doubt springs eternal on Wall Street. There is good reason for that, given what's transpired of late, and given what happened again Wednesday as stock proxies surrendered once-impressive gains.

Early on, shares were spurred by a string of better-than-expected earnings from blue-chip firms such as Citigroup (C Quote), Boeing (BA Quote) and Coca-Cola (KO Quote), as well as investors' perverse "it could have been worse" reaction to Intel's (INTC Quote) disappointing results last night; shares of the chip giant were recently up 4.9%.

A rebound in the dollar further enlivened trading early on, helping shares overcome negatives such as concerns about subprime loans at Capital One Financial (COF Quote), lately down 34.8% and dragging down peers such as MBNA (KRB Quote), and disappointing earnings from firms such as J.P. Morgan(JPM Quote). ...