NEW YORK - US stocks ended mixed Monday as Wall Street kept calm after plunges in global markets linked to the sliding dollar and fears of fallout from the meltdown of investment giant Bear Stearns.
In highly volatile trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 21.16 points (0.18 percent) to finish at 11,972.25, rebounding from opening losses of nearly 200 points. The broader market saw moderate losses.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite meanwhile slumped 35.48 points (1.60 percent) to 2,177.01 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index declined 11.54 points (0.90 percent) to 1,276.60.
The mixed action came in contrast to other global markets: Most European shares were down at least three percent and the main Hong Kong share index plunged over five percent.
An emergency Sunday cut by the US Federal Reserve to its discount rate and a weekend deal for JPMorgan Chase to buy investment bank Bear Stearns at a fire-sale price created a sense of crisis sweeping through global markets.
"Investors continue to ask whether we are in the midst of a bottoming process or whether the floor of the markets is about to collapse," said Bob Doll, investment analyst at BlackRock.
"Our best guess is that we are nearing bottom rather than beginning a more significant collapse, and that we are not that far from the bottom."
JPMorgan Chase prepared to take over Bear Stearns for 236 million dollars, just a fraction of what it was worth only last week after a deal to avert a collapse of the brokerage that became the biggest Wall Street victim of the subprime, or high-risk, mortgage crisis.
But many said Bear Stearns would not be the last victim.
"Some analysts on Wall Street are speculating that Lehman Brothers could have similar liquidity problems at Bear Stearns," said Andrea Kramer at Schaeffer's Investment Research.
Yet some said the heavy selling may have been a sign that the worst is over.
"Although the weekend news on Bear Stearns was a negative, the market lately has had muted reactions to negative stories," said Gregory Drahuschak at Janney Montgomery Scott.
"The willingness to hold up against negative news is a positive sign that we suspect in time will be a primary driver for a recovery. Once again we would draw your attention to the 1990-1991 experience when much of the worst news was coming out as the market was on its way back up."
In foreign exchange, the dollar fell by as much as 3.5 percent to hit 95.75 yen, a level not seen since September 1995 while the euro reached a record high of 1.5905 dollars.
Bonds rallied as investors fled equity market turmoil. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond fell to 3.314 percent from 3.421 percent Friday and that on the 30-year bond declined to 4.282 percent against 4.358 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
In Europe, in London the FTSE 100 index of leading shares shed 3.86 percent, in Paris the CAC 40 fell 3.51 percent and in Frankfurt the Dax lost 4.18 percent.
The picture was similar in Asia, where Tokyo stocks plunged by 3.7 percent down, ending below the key 12,000 points level for the first time since August 2005. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong plunged 5.18 percent.
In New York, Lehman Brothers shares plunged 19.1 percent to 31.75 dollars aid market fears of another crisis and Citigroup, another troubled financial firm, slumped 5.9 percent to 18.62.
But JPMorgan Chase shares lifted 10.3 percent to 40.31 dollars, as it scooped up Bear Stearns at a bargain-basement price with an effective financial guarantee from the Federal Reserve.
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03/17/2008 20:37 GMT