NEW YORK (AP) - A late rise in technology stocks helped the U.S. stock market stagger to a tiny gain following a choppy day of trading Tuesday.
A combination of tepid earnings results, falling oil prices and downbeat news kept the market lower for most of the day. Major indexes started higher in the first few minutes of trading but quickly faded, as slipping confidence among homebuilders and another drop in crude pulled housing and energy stocks down. The S&P 500 spent the afternoon slowly recovering, until a late surge in Apple, Netflix and other technology titans helped nudge the index up.
"There's just a lot driving trading today," Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives with the Schwab Center for Financial Research. "I think we're going to see more volatility for a while, not just down but up, too."
The S&P 500 index inched up 3.13 points, or 0.2 percent, to finish at 2,022.55.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 3.66 points, a sliver of a percent, to 17,515.23, and the Nasdaq rose 20.46 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,654.85.
Of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 index, technology companies had the best day, with Apple and Netflix climbing 3 percent.
Frederick said that uncertainty is behind the recent turbulence.
At the moment, there are just too many open questions about oil prices and the global economy. He pointed to two upcoming events that could swing markets: a meeting of the European Central Bank on Thursday and elections in Greece on Sunday. Many in the markets are betting that the ECB will unveil a new effort to revive that region's flagging economy.
U.S. economic news Tuesday offered little encouragement. A weak signal from the housing market sent builders' stocks down. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo's builder sentiment index slipped a point from the prior month, an indication that they feel slightly less confident in their sales prospects heading into the spring. D.R. Horton dropped 81 cents, or 3 percent, to $22.95, while PulteGroup lost 77 cents, or 4 percent, to $20.80.