Yet another tough day on Wall St.

If you've been following business news for the past, oh... couple months, you'd know that the stock market has been dipping faster than Lindsay Lohan's future acting career (ok, sorry, no more cheap-shot analogies... I promise). Sparked largely by America's current and quite possibly worst-ever housing credit crunch, the market's sheer volatility has been illustrated over the past couple months in a very unsettling display of falling stock prices. In the past couple weeks, however, the market has returned (slightly), yet it is still as volatile as ever, and today's rough day on Wall St. manifests this trend:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks tumbled Wednesday, as investors eyed reports showing slumping pending home sales, anemic private sector employment and the latest woes for the financial sector.

Also dragging on stocks: the afternoon release of the Federal Reserve's 'beige book' report on the economy, which added to confusion about whether the central bank will cut short-term interest rates anytime soon.

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The Dow Jones industrial average (down 143.39 to 13,305.47, Charts) lost 143 points, or almost 1.1 percent. The broader S&P 500 (down 17.13 to 1,472.29, Charts) index fell 1.2 percent. The Nasdaq Composite (down 24.29 to 2,605.95, Charts) lost 0.9 percent.

Treasury bond prices jumped, lowering the corresponding yields, as investors sought the relatively-safer-haven investments. Oil prices rose.

Thursday brings the weekly jobless claims report, the revised reading on second-quarter productivity, the weekly oil inventories report and the Institute for Supply Management's report on the services sector of the economy.

The housing gloom grows

Stocks rose Tuesday as investors welcomed upbeat economic news and continued to bet that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates if necessary when it meets later this month. Such bets fueled a big rally at the end of last week.

But the advance petered out Wednesday following a weak July pending home sales report, a surprisingly tepid employment reading and signs of more problems for the credit and mortgage markets.

The afternoon release of the Fed's periodic 'beige book' report on the economy added to the day's weakness, said Tom Schrader, managing director of U.S. equity trading at Legg Mason.

Released at around 2:00 p.m. ET, the 'beige book' showed that the economy continued to grow throughout August, although tighter credit requirements hurt the housing market.

Wall Streeters didn't like the report, Schrader said, because they are interpreting it as implying that the central bank may not see a need for an interest rate cut at the Sept. 18 policy meeting, since growth seems to be holding up.

"I think we're probably in for another few weeks of choppy market action," Schrader said. "We've got to get through the September Fed meeting first before stocks can really make an attempt to move higher."

The pending home sales index, a measure of contracts to buy existing homes, fell to its lowest level since the month that included the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a trade group reported Wednesday.

Also weighing on stocks: the ADP employment report, which showed surprisingly weak growth in private sector jobs in August. The report could be a negative indication for the broader August employment report, expected Friday morning.