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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks turned lower after Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said Europe's debt problems and the fiscal cliff are hindering U.S. growth.
Bernanke told a Senate panel that risks to economic growth have grown and that the Fed "is prepared to take further action as appropriate," according to prepared testimony. That's not exactly new rhetoric for the central bank.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) slid 12 points, or 0.1%, the S&P 500 (SPX) was down 2 points, or 0.1% and the Nasdaq (COMP) shed 7 points, or 0.3%.
Stocks got an early boost from better-than-expected earnings from Coca-Cola (KO, Fortune 500) and Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), along with several economic reports that showed modest improvement.
Consumer prices rose at a 1.7% annual rate in June, unchanged from May.
The Federal Reserve reported that June industrial production rose 0.4%, beating economist expectations of 0.3%.
In Europe, Germany's high court said it will be another eight weeks before it issues its decision on the legality of the multinational bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism.
Spain's auction of 12- and 18-month debt resulted in yields that were lower than last month. But debt worries remain, and the yield Spain's on 10-year note edged up to 6.80%, closer to the 7% point that the nation's prime minister has deemed untenable.
U.S. stocks finished lower Monday as investors moved into Treasuries, sending the 10-year yield to a record low after disappointing June retail sales data.
World markets: European stocks were mixed in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 (UKX) was 0.1% lower, the DAX (DAX) in Germany added 0.6% and France's CAC 40 (CAC40) ticked up 0.6%.
Asian markets closed higher. The Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP) rose 0.6%, the Hang Seng (HSI) in Hong Kong gained 1.8% and Japan's Nikkei (N225) added 0.4%.
Companies: Goldman Sachs beat expectations and reported earnings per share of $1.78 on $6.63 billion in revenue.
Coca-Cola reported earnings per share of $1.21 on revenue of $13 billion. Both figures were better than analysts' forecasts.
Shares of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500) slid after the company reported earnings per share of $1.30 and lower-than-expected revenue of $16.5 billion.
Facebook's (FB) stock continued to slide Tuesday, a day after shares fell 8%. After a botched public debut, the stock has struggled to move back toward its IPO price of $38 a share.
Sprint Nextel (S, Fortune 500) shares edged higher as the telecom company launched faster service in 15 cities across the United States. The new 4G LTE network is about 10 times faster than the commonly used 3G and is available on five of its phones.
Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) shares gained traction after the company named Marissa Mayer, a Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) executive who was one of the first two dozen employees at the search leader, as its new CEO on Monday. Yahoo reports earnings after the closing bell.
HSBC (HBC) shares fell after a U.S. Senate report released late Monday said HSBC failed to prevent billions of dollars worth of money transfers that investigators believe were linked to drug cartels and terrorist groups.
Currencies and commodities: The dollar fell against the euro, but gained versus the British pound and Japanese yen.
Oil for August delivery rose 32cents to $88.75 a barrel.
Gold futures for August delivery fell $7.50 to $1,584.10 an ounce.
Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, pushing the yield up to 1.48% from 1.46% late Monday.
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