Whoops! Big Rally Falls Flat

Stocks ended mixed today, as an early rally slipped away and oil prices hit yet another record. "There are still a lot of reasons you wouldn't want to touch the market with a 10-foot pole right now," one trader told the Wall Street Journal. The Dow ended up 41.36 at 13,028.16, the Nasdaq down 12.76 at 2,516.09, and the S&P 500 up 1.28 at 1,426.63 .

Transportation stocks, which are highly sensitive to the price of oil, propelled the rally. "The market just won't be able to sustain a rally unless the financials begin to participate more," the trader said. Although the S&P ended up overall, its financial sector closed slightly down. (More stock market stories.)