The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped for the third day in a row Tuesday but managed to pare losses late in the day after Cyprus’ parliament rejected a proposed tax on bank deposits, which was one of the conditions of a European bailout.
The parliament in Cyprus rejected the tax and this eased the concerns that depositors would start withdrawing funds. But at the same time, the country would not receive help from the European central bank to rescue it from its debt crisis. Banks in Cyprus will remain close up to Thursday.
The S&P 500’s fall came after a long streak of advances as the index came near its all-time closing high reached in 2007. The S&P 500 is still on its way to get its best quarter in a year. At present, it is up 8.4 percent for the year. The Dow is currently up 10.3 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial average went up 3.76 points to close at 14,455.82. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 3.76 points to 1,548.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 8.50 points to 3,229.10.
Adobe Systems Inc., maker of Acrobat and Photoshop software, increased 5.6 percent to $43.05 after releasing its earnings report that was better than the estimates of analysts. The stock closed at $40.75, which was down 0.8 percent.
The CBOE Volatility Index increased 7.71 percent to close at 14.39. It got an intraday high of 15.40, which was up 15.27 percent from Monday. The S&P 500 traded as low as 1,538.57. Analysts still expect the index to break its record high that was set in October 2007.
