Stock averages end in the red, as a late-day reversal capped a volatile session. Some support was found in banking and tech earnings, commodity gains and in the generally improved tone found in the Fed's Beige Book report. Wal-Mart's (WMT) decline, which followed price cuts, tugged on the blue-chip DJIA.
Stocks did chop around near mid-day as well. Volatile trading is a reflection of shaken confidence that stocks can continue to sretch 2009 highs without something of a correction.

Stocks overcame early weakness as Wall Street chose to focus on upbeat bank and tech earnings amid a mixed batch of quarterly results overall. Airlines were among the issues to decline after their results.

Stocks maintained their upward tilt after the release of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book report, offering anecdotal evidence of economic improvement from around the country.

"Reports of gains in economic activity generally outnumber declines, but virtually every reference to improvement was qualified as either small or scattered," the Fed report said.

Yahoo (YHOO) provided a lift after it beat the Street's profit and sales expectations, thanks to months of cost-cutting and restructuring and an uptick in Q3 advertising.

Also in the tech space, SanDisk (SNDK) jumped after the chip maker's results came in above Wall Street's forecasts.

In the financial sector, Morgan Stanley (MS) reported net income for common shareholders of $498 million, or 38 cents a share. Analysts on average had forecast 27 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters. Morgan Stanley shares were up more than 6% at mid-day. Wells Fargo (WFC), among volume leaders, reported a Q3 profit of $2.64 billion, or 56 cents per share, after paying preferred dividends, up from $1.64 billion, or 49 cents per share, a year ago. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 37 cents per share.

Cadbury (CBY) beat sales forecasts and raised targets, lifting shares and pressure on suitor Kraft (KFT) to come up with a bigger bid to win its takeover battle.