NEW YORK — Sudden twists in the price of oil and currency trading turned the stock market into a roller-coaster ride Tuesday.
Major indexes opened lower as falling oil prices and a plunge in the Russian ruble weighed on markets. Less than an hour later, crude oil recovered and oil and gas producers surged, driving the Dow Jones industrial average up as much as 246 points in the morning.
All of the gains were wiped out in the last hour.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index ended with a loss of 16.89 points, or 0.9 percent, to 1,972.74. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 111.97 points, or 0.7 percent, to 17,068.87, while the Nasdaq composite dropped 57.33 points, or 1.2 percent, to 4,547.83.
The turbulence drove traders into the safety of U.S. government bonds, driving prices up and yields down. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note sank to 2.06 percent from 2.12 percent late Monday, a big move in the normally placid market.
The volatility in financial markets is likely to last until oil prices find a stable floor, said Marc Zabicki, senior market strategist at Ameriprise Financial.
“Lower oil prices certainly are a net positive for U.S. consumer spending,” he said. “But there’s a contagion risk out there that investors have an eye on. Namely, what does it do to shale gas players, and what does it mean to the banks that lend to them?”
Since reaching a record high of 2,075.37 on Dec. 5, the S&P 500 has fallen into a slump, losing ground on six of the past seven trading days. Energy companies have been hit hard, a result of the ongoing slump in crude.
The S&P 500 has lost 4.6 percent this month. December, usually one of the market’s best months, hasn’t lived up to its reputation.
The price of U.S. oil settled higher Tuesday for the first time in a week, rising 2 cents to close at $55.93 a barrel in New York. Oil has fallen by nearly half since June as demand wanes and supply surges.
