NEW YORK - Wall Street's big rally fizzled -- and maybe that's OK.
Analysts said Monday's pullback after a four-session surge didn't necessarily signal that traders were reconsidering their newfound optimism about financial stocks, a main driver behind last week's advance.
In fact, some viewed the measured easing in stocks as reassuring after a surge of more than 9 percent in major indicators last week, more than the market has moved in some years.
"This is healthy," said Dave Rovelli, managing director of trading at brokerage Canaccord Adams in New York. "The best thing for this market is that we don't go up aggressively. A steady rise of a few up days, then a down day would be a lot better than 1,000 points up."
Stocks rose for much of the session as investors snapped up hard-hit financial shares. Comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and reassuring news from a British bank eased some worries about the overall economy and prospects for financial companies struggling with bad debt.
Bernanke said Sunday the recession would probably end this year if the government's efforts to revive the banking industry succeed. In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," Bernanke said fixing the economy will require getting banks to lend more freely and financial markets to work more normally again.
On Monday, the Dow slipped 7.01, or 0.1 percent, to 7,216.97. The blue chips rose as much as 169 points during the session.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.66, or 0.4 percent, to 753.89, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 27.48, or 1.9 percent, to 1,404.02.
