YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Bank stocks led losses in the early going and into the close, but in between stocks were able to trade with modest gains amid signs of improved consumer confidence and strength in Dow component IBM.

Financial stocks were down as much as 2.6% in the first few minutes of trading as investors grew worried about bank capital levels. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Bank of America (BAC 8.15, -0.77) and Citigroup (C 2.89, -0.18) may need to raise billions to satisfy the government's bank stress tests. Citigroup simply responded by stating that its regulatory capital base is strong and it continues working to improve tangible common ratios, according to Reuters.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM 32.79, +0.01) bucked the negative trend among major banks to lead financials into positive ground, but the advance proved unsustainable as sellers redoubled their efforts against financials and handed the sector a 1.8% loss for the session, worse than any other sector.

Though the financial sector's late downturn resulted in a loss for the broader market, stocks were able to trade with modest gains for much of the session. The gains came after the Conference Board reported its Consumer Confidence Index for April improved to 39.2 from 26.9. The reading was expected to come in at 29.7.

Meanwhile, IBM (IBM 101.94, +1.99) provided additional support to the broader market by increasing its quarterly cash dividend by $0.05 to $0.55 per share and authorizing $3 billion in funds for stock repurchases. Despite IBM's announcement, tech stocks finished the session with a 0.6% loss.

Telecom stocks actually logged the best performance of the session by advancing 1.2%. Verizon (VZ 30.96, +0.42) showed leadership amid reports that the company is pursuing partnerships that will help develop advanced generation mobile phones.

Biotech stocks (+0.8%) and managed health care stocks (+3.6%) provided support to the health care sector after Hospira (HSP 32.99, +1.65) and Coventry Health (CVH 15.22, +1.01) each reported better-than-expected earnings for the latest quarter. Pharmaceuticals stocks (-0.8%) garnered little support even though Pfizer (PFE 13.39, -0.10) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY 19.65, -0.89) both posted solid quarterly earnings results.DJ30 -8.05 NASDAQ -5.60 NQ100 -0.6% R2K +0.7% SP400 +0.5% SP500 -2.35 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1547/2.10 bln/1110 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1581/1.25 bln/1409