NEW YORK - Wall Street clawed back most of its steep early losses and finished mixed Tuesday as investors looked past more gloom on the economic and corporate front.
The US market managed to shake off early selling pressure that drove down most global stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 45.10 points (0.37 percent) to close at 12,213.80 as the blue-chip index recovered most of a slide of more than 200 points.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite eked out a gain of 1.68 points (0.07 percent) to 2,260.28 while the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index closed down 4.59 points (0.34 percent) at 1,326.75.
The market opened on a negative note as computer chip giant Intel cut its profit margin forecast and analysts said US financial giant Citigroup may need more capital in the face of a growing US property crisis.
Moreover, some were unsettled as Venezuela closed its border with Colombia as part of a rapidly escalating crisis over the killing of a Colombian rebel chief in Ecuador.
The market also had a negative reaction to comments from Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and vice chairman Donald Kohn, who suggested the crisis in the US housing and finance sectors is not over.
Al Goldman at AG Edwards said the late turnaround came after upbeat comments from tech giants Cisco Systems and Amazon.com, and news of some progress being made by a troubled bond insurer.
"The final hour on Wall Street made all the difference today," Goldman said.
"The market roared back to pare its early deep losses, thanks to comments by a pair of technology leaders and a report that a bailout of bond insurer Ambac is progressing."
Gregory Drahuschak at Janney Montgomery Scott said Wall Street has managed to hold key support levels, averting a meltdown, but that the market is not out of the woods yet.
"The most commonly asked question these days is when the current credit market malaise will end," he said.
"Regardless of all the data someone might assemble to justify a position, there realistically is no way to pinpoint an end to the problem."
Europe's main markets all closed lower for the fourth day in a row, with London's FTSE 100 down 0.87 percent at 5,767.70, the CAC 40 in Paris off 1.41 percent at 4,675.91 and the Dax in Frankfurt down 2.17 percent at 6,544.05.
Among key stocks in New York, Amazon rallied 4.7 percent to 65.34 dollars as the online retailer reaffirmed its 2008 revenue forecast, according to Goldman.
Cisco fell 0.45 percent to 24.29 dollars after upbeat comments from the tech giant's chief executive.
Ambac, one of several troubled bond insurers, leapt 7.8 percent to 10.72 after a published report that it may be near a deal for a capital injection.
The rest of the finance sector remained under pressure. Citigroup sank 4.3 percent to 22.10 dollars after a report that the head of Dubai International Capital told a private equity conference the US financial giant needs more cash to avert deeper woes.
Banking rival JP Morgan Chase lost 1.6 percent to 39.19 dollars and Bear Stearns shed 0.2 percent to 77.17.
Intel dipped 0.05 percent to 20.00 dollars as the leading chipmaker warned of lower profit margins due to weak prices for certain memory chips.
Bonds slipped. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond rose to 3.579 percent from 3.534 percent Monday and that on the 30-year bond increased to 4.484 percent against 4.425 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
bur-rl/jjc
03/04/2008 21:50 GMT