The stock market sputtered to an indecisive close Thursday, taking a pause after three straight days of losses.
Small-company stocks, which have slumped 10 percent from their early-July peak into what’s known as a “correction,” recovered the most.
Thursday’s pause followed what has been a tough spell for the market, including the Dow Jones industrial average’s 238-point drop Wednesday and a weak September. The buying may have reflected people stepping into the market to take advantage of the recent declines, a trend of “buying on the dip” that has kept the market rising all year despite various geopolitical shocks and worries about Europe’s flagging economy.
Stocks had been sharply lower most of the day, only to recover in the last couple of hours of trading. The Dow had been down as much as 130 points.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was effectively unchanged on the day, rising one one-hundredth of a point to close at 1,946.17.
The Dow fell 3.66 points, or 0.02 percent, to 16,801.05, and the Nasdaq composite rose 8.11 points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,430.19.
The price of crude oil and energy stocks, which had also been through a rough patch, recovered as well.
Oil had slumped earlier in the day, helping to drag energy and other stocks lower, but ended up recovering all of its losses by the close of trading. Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 28 cents to $91.01 a barrel in New York. It fell to $88.18 at one point, its lowest level since April of 2013.
Oil had been on a multiweek slide after OPEC announced it would keep oil production at its current levels despite a weakening global economy and a glut in world oil supplies. Lower oil prices are by and large good for the average U.S. consumer because it translates into lower gas prices. But lower oil prices also hurt the profitability of energy companies, which make up a large part of the U.S. stock market.
Airline stocks also made a modest recovery after sliding Wednesday. United Continental rose 66 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $46.13; Delta Air Lines was up 38 cents, or 1 percent, to $35.28; and Jet Blue rose 34 cents, or 3 percent, to $10.59. The airlines got beaten down Wednesday on fears that the news of the first diagnosed case of Ebola in the U.S. might curtail demand for travel.
“Confirmation of a case of Ebola in the U.S. has joined a growing list of bad news stories with geopolitical tensions in Ukraine and Hong Kong, and growth concerns around China and Europe,” Niall King of CMC Markets said in a commentary.
