Stocks Take A Beating On Global Fears

European debt worries and China rate-hike fears slammed U.S. stocks Tuesday, adding to the market's bearish trend.

After having been down as much as 2.4% intraday, the NYSE composite cut its loss to 1.9% and closed slightly above its 50-day moving average. The Nasdaq lost 1.7%, while the Dow and the S&P 500 shed 1.6% each as leading stocks couldn't escape the selling.

Volume surged across the board in a sign that professional investors were dumping stocks. Decliners trounced advancers by more than 6-to-1 on the NYSE and about 4-to-1 on the Nasdaq. New 52-week lows outpaced 52-week highs.

The high-volume decline was the sixth for the Dow and the fifth for the NYSE composite in recent weeks.

That's a sizable buildup of distribution in the market, and enough to consider the current market slide a correction.Which means investors should get off margin and refrain from buying stocks. Instead, be defensive.

Successful investing involves not only making gains, but keeping them as well. The bottom line is that growth investors need to protect gains won during the strong uptrend that peaked earlier this month. Gauge each of your holdings carefully and watch for sell signals.

Corrections give stocks time to form new bases, which produce the next buying opportunities.

Markets do not like uncertainty, and stocks were in trouble from the start Tuesday as sovereign debt fears took center stage. Six months ago, it was Greece that received a bailout. Now euro zone officials worry that Ireland's debt crisis is worsening, but the government has yet to ask for a bailout.

Elsewhere, worries that China may further raise interest rates also weighed on stocks.

The day's notable losers included some of the biggest winners of the most recent uptrend.