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Apple, already the world's most valuable company, hit the $600 billion level for the first time Tuesday....

Stocks are pulling back sharply on Wall Street as investors get their first chance to react to a slowdown in hiring in the United States in March. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 152 points to 12,908 shortly before noon Monday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was off 18 at 1,380, and the Nasdaq composite lost 36 points to 3,044.

Since October, estimates for first-quarter earnings growth have tumbled while the S&P 500 has surged. With the earnings season starting next week, the outlook is not as sunny as in previous quarters.

Wall Street took a drubbing Wednesday as investors worried that the Federal Reserve might not be willing to pump more money into the U.S. economy.

President Obama on Wednesday signed the STOCK Act into law, a bipartisan bill designed to stop so-called "congressional insider trading." The measure, which passed in Congress last month, prohibits members of Congress from financial market trading based on nonpublic information they have obtained in the course of their congressional work.

Wall Street closed out its strongest quarter in nearly three years Friday, leaving investors wondering if the market can continue to deliver strong gains in the weeks and months ahead.

Portfolio managers will be doing some last-minute shopping for winners from the big stock market rally as they take part next week in the quarter-end ritual of window dressing.

Stocks climbed to new heights in part on rosy retail sales data, pushing the broad market to levels last seen in June 2008 and the Nasdaq composite index past the 3,000 milestone for the first time since 2000.

Stocks rose meekly Wednesday morning after their biggest loss this year as reassuring reports on productivity and hiring overshadowed jitters about the Greek debt crisis.

Stocks suffered their biggest losses in three months Tuesday, the first hiccup in a strong and steady rally to start the year. Wall Street worried about the global economy and waited while Greece pressured the last investors to sign on for its bailout.