Some highlights from the day's business news:

Investors were more optimistic Tuesday afternoon after the Federal Reserve's minutes from its most recent meeting indicated that some Fed members favored more stimulus.

Stocks had a rough day, opening slightly lower, only to sink sharply following a weak consumer confidence report. But the knee jerk reaction was short lived, and stocks bounced back into positive territory before settling into a malaise for much of the day.

All indices closed the day in positive territory, but still remained down for the year. The Dow Jones industrial average moved up 20 points, or 0.2%, to 11,559.95.

Financial stocks remained under pressure, with Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase down between 1% to 3.5%.

The S&P 500 rose 3 points, or 0.2% to 1212.92; while the Nasdaq added 14 points, or 0.6% to 2576.11. Research in Motion, Baidu, and Netflix were among the biggest winners on the tech-heavy index.

Fed debated QE3 at August meeting

Federal Reserve policymakers debated the possibility of additional stimulus to jumpstart a stumbling U.S. economy at their most recent meeting on Aug. 9.

Among the options that had support of some members was a controversial third round of purchases of U.S. Treasuries, known as quantitative easing - or QE3 for short - according to the minutes of that meeting released Tuesday.

The Fed said some members argued that such purchases would drive down interest rates further and was the proper response to the growing signs of economic weakness. At least three members argued for immediately pumping more money into the economy.

Bank of America still not out of the woods

Even with Warren Buffett in its corner, Bank of America's fight to get past the mortgage bust is far from over.

Days after receiving $5 billion vote of confidence form the legendary investor, the list of opponents to BofA's proposed $8.5 billion settlement with investors in mortgage-backed bonds continues to grow.

On Monday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation filed an objection to the settlement, saying it does not have enough information to evaluate the agreement, according to federal court documents.

The settlement, announced in June, has yet to be approved by the courts. It stems from troubled real estate loans made by Countrywide Financial, which BofA acquired in 2008. The money would go to a group of 22 investors, including BlackRock, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Pimco, which bought bonds backed by the home loans.

- CNNMoney.com's Maureen Farrell, Chris Isidore and Ben Rooney contributed to this report.