chelsea hayes long jump olympic trials
AP
Stocks rallied all day amid continued enthusiasm about the probability of future central bank action.
But that rally faded dramatically in the final seconds of the day. The Dow was up around 85 points, but ended up 20 points.
But first, your scoreboard:
Dow: 13,117; 21 pts; +0.23%

S&P 500: 1,394; 3 pts; +0.74%

NASDAQ: 2,990; 22 pts; +0.16%

Here are today's top stories:
  • European markets rallied today amidst continuing enthusiasm for comments by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi that suggested future action by the central bank. The Spanish IBEX 35 closed 4.41 percent higher, though this rally was much smaller in other European indices. 

  • Yields on Spanish and Italian 2-year bonds fell to three-month lows. Italian bonds of that maturity were yielding 3.03 percent (down 8bps) and Spanish bonds were yielding 3.50 percent (down 46 bps) at the close of trading. 

  • Knight Capital Group—the market making firm which lost $440 million after a trading glitch August 1—announced that it would receive $400 million in investments to stay afloat. In return for their cash, those investors will get some 276 million shares of 2% convertible preferred stock. This will drastically dilute the stakes of existing shareholders. Shares of $KCG fell 24 percent today.

  • In an interview with Der Spiegel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti criticized "governments [which] allow themselves to be entirely bound to the decisions of their parliament, without protecting their own freedom to act," saying that such governments would more likely lead to a break-up of the euro area rather than deeper fiscal integration. European leaders and thinkers immediately called out Monti's statements as undemocratic. 

  • U.K.-based Standard Chartered may lose its license to operate in the U.S., after hiding more than 60,000 illegal transactions. The New York Department of Financial Services announced today that the U.K.-based Standard Chartered Bank processed more than $250 billion worth of transactions on behalf of Iran, flouting regulations that prohibit countries in the U.S. from doing business with that country.