Stocks Fight Their Way Back to Mixed Close

Updated from 4:12 p.m. EDT

Stocks edged higher in the final hour of trading Tuesday to close roughly where they opened the choppy trading session -- narrowly mixed. Traders digested home-sales data that were as bad as expected, improved consumer confidence reports and hawkish notes from an August Fed meeting.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 26.62 points, or 0.2%, at 11,412.87, and the S&P 500 added 4.67 points, or 0.4%, to 1,271.51. The Nasdaq shed 3.62 points, or 0.2%, at 2,361.97.

Recent angst over U.S. financial institutions persisted Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal reported that federal regulators have sent "memorandums of understanding," documents that can force banks to raise capital or reduce exposure to high-risk assets, to as many as six banks, including National City (NCC Quote), Imperial Capital (IMP Quote), First State (FSNM Quote) and BankUnited Financial (BKUNA Quote). ...