Stocks slide at end of a strong quarter

NEW YORK -- Stocks fell Tuesday after a private research group said consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in June.

Even with the slide, stocks ended the second quarter with sharp gains. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 15% for the April-June period, its best quarter in a decade.

Investors had been expecting the Conference Board's measure of consumer sentiment to hold steady following big jumps in April and May. Consumer confidence is closely watched because spending from consumers accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

The latest data on the troubled housing sector provided no help to the market.

The number of homeowners at least two months behind or in foreclosure jumped in the first quarter from the previous quarter, a Treasury Department report said, and much of the increase came from borrowers who had good credit.

Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller index showed home prices in 20 major cities were down 18.1% from April 2008. While April marked the third straight month the index didn't set record price declines, the index is down almost 33% from its peak in the second quarter of 2006.

After months of economic data showing that the recession was not getting worse, investors are hungry for signs that the economy is actually growing. Investors are nervous that the economy's rebound won't be as robust as hoped.

Those fears have stalled a three-month advance in the market that has brought the S&P 500 index up 36% from a 12-year low reached on March 9. Stocks are off their best levels on June 12.

"The market is concerned that this budding recovery is going to evaporate, was just a mirage," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University, Channel Islands.