New York - Turmoil in the eurozone and a clutch of disappointing earnings reports sent US markets tumbling on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up almost 200 points at one point during the session, but a late buying rally reversed course to minimize the day's loss.
The Dow closed off 76.44 points at 12,932.09, while the broader S&P 500 fell 5.86to 1,363.72.
The tech-rich Nasdaq dropped 11.49 to 2,946.27.
Losses were spread broadly, with little in the way of domestic US news to overshadow worries that parties opposed to conditions of the €130bn IMF-EU bailout for Greece might take power in Greece.
The markets were "pressured by some disappointing reports from the domestic equity front... exacerbating early uneasiness stemming from resurfacing eurozone debt crisis concerns," said analysts at Charles Schwab & Co.
McDonald's April sales growth reports for its popular burger outlets came in below general expectations, pushing its share price down 2.1%.
Casino operator Wynn Resorts was down 4.8% after it missed expectations on per-share earnings for the first quarter.
Gamemaker Electronic Arts lost 4.3% after handing analysts a weaker-than-expected earnings outlook and revealing a sharp fall in subscribers to its multiplayer game "Star Wars: The Old Republic".
Fashion house Fossil plunged 37.6% after reporting poor first-quarter sales, mainly due to the sagging European market, and issuing a disappointing forecast for the second quarter.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 1.84% from Monday's 1.88%, while the 30-year slipped to 3.02% from 3.07%. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.