Today's Market: Stocks Close Down as Bearish Heads Prevail

Another ugly session wrapped up on the Street, with major equity indices tumbling after yesterday's massive rally that saw the third-largest percentage gain in history on the Nasdaq Composite Index and the second-largest point gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average .

Today's selloff was in part a payback from yesterday and was also motivated by a number of earnings warnings and a weaker-than-expected jobs report. The market made a couple of attempts to rally in the midafternoon, but investors weren't having any, attacking the rallies and selling them aggressively. Breadth was putrid, with more than double the number of stocks ending lower than higher.

The Dow gained 400 points yesterday while the Nasdaq rose 9%, and Tony Dwyer, market strategist at Kirlin Holdings, noted that action like yesterday's is almost asking for a selloff. Meager gains are something to build on, he said, but ridiculously volatile rallies are almost always opportunities to sell. ...