The party's over on Wall Street

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Wall Street's recent winning streak came to an end Wednesday as subprime worries, disappointing corporate earnings and comments from Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke sent major gauges lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average (Charts) tumbled by as much as 145 points before finishing 53 points, or about 0.4 percent lower.

The broader S&P 500 (down 3.20 to 1,546.17, Charts) eased 0.2 percent, while the tech-laden Nasdaq (down 12.80 to 2,699.49, Charts) fell nearly 0.5 percent.

A day earlier the Dow briefly crossed the 14,000 mark, finishing in record territory for the fourth straight session.

The Dow has risen for 9 of the past 12 sessions.

"All of the things that were propelling us higher kind of evaporated," said Alan Lancz, money manager and editor of Lancz Letter.

After digesting some troubling corporate results, Wall Street received some positive news after Wednesday's closing bell from tech outfits IBM and eBay.

Dow component IBM (Charts, Fortune 500) reported better-than-expected profits and sales when it reported quarterly earnings.

EBay (Charts, Fortune 500) also reported earnings and revenue that beat analyst projections, helped by strength in its auction business.

Stocks retreated earlier in the session following disappointing earnings news from Yahoo (down $1.33 to $26.20, Charts, Fortune 500) and Intel (down $1.27 to $25.06, Charts, Fortune 500). Shares of the two companies fell nearly 5 percent on the Nasdaq.

A report that two Bear Stearns (Charts, Fortune 500) hedge funds heavily invested in securities backed by subprime mortgages are nearly worthless, fanned fears that about the subprime mortgage sector and weighed on investor sentiment.

Stocks declined to a session low following somewhat hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Speaking to a Congressional committee, the Fed chief said that he sees moderate economic growth to pick up gradually this year, but said that the central bank is still wary about inflation.

"His talk today did not really lower inflation expectations for 2008 and that kind of unnerved investors a little bit," said Lancz.

Treasury prices climbed, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 5.02 percent from 5.07 percent late Tuesday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

U.S. light crude for August delivery jumped $1.02 to $75.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The dollar fell against the euro and the yen. COMEX gold for August gained $7.80 to $673.70.

The earnings season picked up steam Wednesday as a number of Dow components reported second quarter results.

JPMorgan Chase reported a better-than-expected increase in quarterly results before the bell Wednesday, driven by strong investment banking results. JP Morgan (down $1.18 to $48.74, Charts, Fortune 500) shares declined over 2 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.

Drugmaker Pfizer (down $0.83 to $25.13, Charts, Fortune 500), meanwhile, posted a decline in quarterly profit, hurt by generic competition, sending its shares over 3 percent.

Altria (down $0.98 to $70.30, Charts, Fortune 500) posted lower profits that topped expectations, but cut its full-year earnings forecast, while fellow Dow component United Technologies (Charts, Fortune 500) booked higher profits.

Among individual issues, 22 of the 30 Dow components finished lower.

Macy's (up $3.06 to $43.09, Charts) shares soared nearly 8 percent higher following a report by Women's Wear Daily that private equity firm KKR is reportedly mulling a $24 billion bid for the retailer in conjunction with Goldman Sachs.

Market breadth was negative. Losers beat winners nearly 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange on volume of 1.76 billion shares. Decliners topped advancers by the same ratio on the Nasdaq on volume of 2.23 billion shares.

The pace of companies reporting results does not look like it will slow down anytime soon, however, as a number of companies including Bank of America, Motorola, Google and Microsoft are all due to report results Thursday.

On the economic front, investors got latest reading on prices paid by consumers. The Consumer Price Index, or CPI, rose slightly more than expected in June, but so-called core CPI, which strips out food and energy prices, fell in line with Wall Street expectations.

Housing starts climbed in June, but applications for new projects, a key measure of builder confidence, fell more than expected, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

Investors will have plenty of economic readings to sift through Thursday including weekly jobless claims reading, the June Philly Fed survey, the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting and leading indicators index for June.