Stocks Sag Under Greek, Fed News

• Dow Jones Industrial Average down 97.33 (-0.76%) to 12,780.95
• S&P 500 down 7.27 (-0.54%) to 1,343.23
• Nasdaq Composite down 16 (-0.55%) to 2,915.83

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

• Nikkei up 2.3%%.
• Hang Seng +2.1%.
• Shanghai Composite +0.94%.
• FTSE-100 -0.13%.

Stocks reversed early gains to finish broadly lower on Wednesday as European officials were unable to finalize a deal to resolve the Greek sovereign debt crisis.

Minutes of the most recent FOMC meeting last month did little to change the course of afternoon trading. The monetary policy panel remains split over whether to implement additional measures to stimulate the U.S. economy but were mostly united on the need to keep interests exceptionally low through 2014.

Production at U.S. factories rose during January, climbing 0.7% after a revised 1.5% gain in December that was the largest in five years, according to figures released earlier in the day by the Federal Reserve.

Manufacturing in the New York region also is expanding this month, hitting its fastest pace in seven months, another report showed today. The Fed Bank of New York's general economic index increased to 19.5 this month from 13.5 in January and exceeding all forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. The reading was greater than zero signal expansion.

Commodities ended mixed. Comex Gold was flat today at $1,726.30 an ounce. Crude oil is higher this afternoon, with the NYMEX March contract rising 73 cents to $101.49 a barrel, easing somewhat from its earlier highs above $102, while Brent futures also are higher with April Brent adding $1.78 to reach $118.93 a barrel. March natural gas has reversed course following moderate gains earlier today and is now down 7.3 cents at $2.464 per 1 million British Thermal Units.

UPSIDE MOVERS

(+) JNPR, Jefferies Sees Big Rebound in Customer Cap-Ex.

(+) WCG, Reports $2.15 adjusted Q4 EPS vs. $1.19 analyst consensus.

DOWNSIDE MOVERS

(-) VG, Q4 EPS, revenues in-line but higher cap-ex spending concerns Street.

(-) CSKI, CEO remains on sick leave; 26 mid-level managers quit.