Stocks ended Friday on a mixed note after violently whipsawing throughout the day. The Dow had a massive trading range of 400 points as investors scrambled to make sense of a whirlwind of news.
Deep investor concerns about the U.S. economy and the European debt crisis caused heavy damage to U.S. stocks this week. All three indexes had their worst week since the darkest months of the 2008-09 financial crisis.
The Dow Jones industrial average (DJIA) rose 61 points, or 0.5%, to close at 11,445. The Dow at one point was down nearly 240 points.
The S&P 500 (INX) fell less than a point, or 0.1%; to 1,199; and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP) slid 24 points, or 1%, to 2,532.
Stocks started Friday's session sharply higher after investors got a strong U.S. jobs report. But the rally had little fuel, with the major indexes turning sharply lower as fears about Europe's escalating debt problems quickly dampened any early enthusiasm.
"The jobs report was modestly reassuring," said Bruce McCain, chief market strategist with Key Private Bank. "But it's been the heightened concerns over Europe that has dominated trading today."
Italy is quickly becoming the latest domino to potentially fall in the eurozone, with many investors worrying that the eurozone's third-largest economy may be too large to save.
"The crisis in Europe is continuing to unfold and while I suspect Europe's debt story will not have a good ending, it's not clear how many more chapters this book has," McCain said.
Stocks plunged Thursday, with the Dow tumbling 512 points. It was the steepest point loss since October 2008 -- as fear about the global economy spooked investors.
All three major indexes have erased their gains for the year and now are deep into "correction" territory -- defined as a 10% drop from recent highs. And while Wall Street took a hammering the past few weeks, stocks remain well above their March 2009 lows.
The dollar rose against the euro, the Japanese yen and British pound.
The greenback also rose for a third straight session against the Swiss franc, following the Swiss National Bank's intervention in the currency market earlier this week.
Gold futures for December delivery gained $3 .to $1,662.60 an ounce Friday, while oil for September delivery added 25 cents to $86.88 a barrel.
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