Stocks Pare Losses in Final Hour

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - U.S. stocks dropped Tuesday as political turmoil in Greece renewed concerns about the country's ability to meet the terms of its bailout and remain a member of the euro zone.

The major U.S. equity indices did stage an impressive bounce off their lows late in the session though, provide some small silver lining for the bulls.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished lower by 76 points, or 0.6%, to close at 12,932. The blue-chip index ran as low as 12,810 during volatile trading, a level unseen since intraday action on April 23.

The S&P 500 shed 5.86 points, or 0.4%, to finish at 1364. The index's session low was 1348, a level unseen in two months.

The Nasdaq lost nearly 12 points, or 0.4%, at 2946. Its nadir for the day was 2900, which it also hasn't glimpsed in two months.

Demand for bonds and the U.S. dollar spiked higher, while gold and other commodities endured a deep sell-off, with gold prices briefly falling below $1600 an ounce.

Breadth within the Dow was negative with 25 of the index's 30 components finishing lower. The biggest percentage losers among the blue chips were Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) , Alcoa(AA) , Bank of America (BAC) , Cisco (CSCO) and McDonald's(MCD) .

Bank of America shares lost more than 2% as CEO Brian Moynihan faces a May 18 deadline to give testimony in a lawsuit brought by MBIA(MBI) , an event that's seen as putting increased pressure on the bank to reach a settlement expected to cost some $2 billion, according to an analyst.

Separately, the bank has also begun reaching out to eligible borrowers to reduce principal on their mortgages by as much as $200,000 as part of its mortgage settlement pact with states attorneys general. The bank holds its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday.