Dow finishes up 20 after early slump

Updated: 8:06 p.m. ET

Stocks started the day badly as investors were disappointed by reports on jobless claims and economic growth, but the market recovered most of its losses at the close.

The Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) had been down as many as 94 points but finished with a 20-point gain, in large part due to rallies in Caterpillar (CAT) and Coca-Cola (KO). The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) and Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) saw midmorning losses cut by 75% or more.

Initial jobless claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 359,000, their lowest level since April 2008, but the market was looking for claims to come in at around 350,000. Gross domestic product, a snapshot of economic growth, expanded at a 3% annual rate in the fourth quarter. Many economists had expected the rate to be revised up to 3.5%.

After hours, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM) reported huge write-offs for its Playbook tablet and other products and said sales in the fiscal fourth quarter fell 25% from a year ago to $4.66 billion. Shares were off 5.5% after hours.

Crude oil (-CL) in New York was trading below $103 a barrel for the first time since Feb. 16, and gold (-GC) briefly fell below $1,650 an ounce as the dollar rose against the euro. Interest rates were lower.

The Dow closed up 20 points to 13,146. The S&P 500 was off just 2 points to 1,403 after falling as many as 14 points. The Nasdaq ended off 10 points to 3,095. The index had been down as many as 35 points.

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The Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX), which tracks the largest Nasdaq stocks, was off 9 points to 2,762; it had dropped as many as 30 points.

Apple (AAPL) was a culprit, off $7.76 to $609.86. The loss subtracted about 6.6 points from the index.

In addition to the stresses from the jobless claims and GDP reports, European stocks were sharply lower in part because the head of sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor's said Greece will probably have to restructure its debt yet again, and there were continued worries about Spanish debt.

What gave the market life was big cyclical stocks like Caterpillar and Cliffs Natural  Resources (CLF), which had tumbled in the morning and came back in the afternoon. Cliffs was down to as low as $67.25 but stormed back up to $70.70, a $2.09 gain.

The S&P 500 hit an important support level at 1,392, its 20-day exponential moving average, and promptly bounced higher.

What that told some analysts was that investors are continuing to buy dips and aren't worried about the market for now.There has been concern that the market was overbought and poised to tumble.

The first quarter ends Friday. With today's close, the Dow is up 7.6% for the quarter -- and 1.5% for March. The S&P 500 is looking at an 11.6% gain for the quarter. The gains are the best for the indexes since 1998. The Nasdaq is up 18.8%, potentially its best quarter since 1991.

The market looks to open down slightly on Friday. The day features Commerce Department reports on personal income and spending, the March Chicago Purchasing Managers Index report, and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index.

Research In Motion is setting up for a turnaround
Research In Motion shares were off 22 cents to $13.51 after hours after rising 6 cents to $13.73 in regular trading. The company reported fiscal-fourth-quarte​r earnings of 80 cents a share after all the writedowns. Using generally accepted accounting, the company lost $125 million, or 24 cents a share, compared with earnings of $934 million, or $1.78, a year ago.

The earnings were 2 cents per share less than analyst estimates, although RIM had earlier said it expected earnings of 85 to 90 cents a share. For the fiscal year, it took an $85 million loss before taxes on its failed Playbook tablet device, a $54 million loss for a service outage last fall and a $267 million writedown of inventory.

RIM is working toward the release of its next-generation handset, the BlackBerry 10, in the second half of this year. Shares are down 6% so far in 2012.

New CEO Thorsten Heins warned that, despite the hopes for its BlackBerry 10, the company faces "significant" challenges over the next few quarters.

Former co-CEO Jim Basillie resigned from the company's board. Two more top executives are leaving as well.

Health care shares lead the market
Health care stocks were the day's winners, but financial and technology shares were the laggards.

Only 11 of the 30 Dow stocks were higher, led by Alcoa (AA), Caterpillar and Coca-Cola (KO). Bankof America (BAC) and American Express (AXP) were the laggards.

Meanwhile, 206 S&P 500 stocks were higher, led by Red Hat (RHT) and Aetna (AET). The laggards were Best Buy and Mosaic (MOS).

Fifty-one Nasdaq-100 stocks were higher, led by Expedia (EXPD) and Amazon.com (AMZN). Whole Foods Market (WFM) and Chinese travel site Ctrip.com International (CTRP) were the laggards.

With today's gain, the Dow has given back 96 points in three days, after rising 161 points on Monday. The S&P 500 has lost 13 points after a 19-point gain, while the Nasdaq has dropped 27 points after a 55-point gain on Monday.

Oil hits a 6-week low
Crude oil settled down $2.63 to $102.78 a barrel. Brent crude was down $1.21 to $122.95 on worries that worldwide demand won't be as large as expected. Adding to the selling pressure: France said governments are moving closer to an agreement on a release from emergency stockpiles to curb price gains.

The retail price of gasoline rose slightly to $3.921 a gallon from $3.911, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

Gold, meanwhile, settled down $5.70 to $1,652.20 an ounce. Silver (-SI) added 17.4 cents to $31.992 an ounce. Copper (-HG), however, rose slightly to $3.7965 a pound.

Interest rates were lower, with the 10-year Treasury yield falling to 2.18% from 2.196% on Monday. The dollar was higher against major currencies.

Energy prices -- New York close
			Thur.			Wed.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Crude oil (-CL)			$102.78			$105.41			-4.01%			4.00%
(per barrel)
Heating oil (-HO)			$3.1689			$3.2222			-1.15%			8.74%
(per gallon)
Natural gas (-NG)			$2.1490			$2.2820			-17.85%			-28.10%
(per mil. BTU)
Unleaded gasoline (-RB)			$3.3397			$3.3621			2.53%			25.68%
(per gallon)
Brent crude			$122.39			$124.16			-0.22%			13.98%
(per barrel)
Retail gasoline			$3.9210			$3.9110			5.09%			19.69%
(per gallon; AAA)

When good news is bad news
The jobless claims and GDP reports were disappointments because investors had expected better numbers.

They suggest the economy isn't quite as robust as thought as recently as two weeks ago.

The jobless claims at 359,000 were down 5,000 from the week before and at the lowest level since mid-April 2008. One reason the number wasn't better was that the Labor Department revised the seasonal factors used in calculating the seasonally adjusted rate. The revision actually boosted the rate.

On an unadjusted basis, the claims came in at 319,349, the best level since March 2008. Adjustments are made to account for normal seasonal patterns.

Any way you look at it, the numbers are a huge improvement from early 2009 when claims were well above 650,000.

The GDP disappointment was that it wasn't revised higher. That's because more health care spending was offset by declines in transportation, financial and recreational services. In other words, Americans weren't traveling and weren't spending a lot of money to have fun.

Best Buy disappoints
Best Buy (BBY) reported weaker-than-expected​ results, and shares were down $1.85 to $24.77.

The electronics-and-appl​iance retailed earned $2.47 a share, excluding items. That was better than the consensus estimate of $2.16. Using generally accepted accounting, the company lost $4.73, not including discontinued operations.

Meanwhile, revenue came in at $16.73 billion, up 3% from a year ago. Analysts, however, had been looking for $17.2 billion. Same-store sales dipped 2.4%, more than the expected 0.6%.

The company plans $800 million in cost-cutting programs by fiscal 2015, including about $250 million in fiscal 2013. It will close 50 U.S. big-box stores in 2013. At the same time, the company will continue to accelerate key initiatives, including growing its business in China.

Health stocks gain after health care arguments
Health maintenance organizations were rallying strongly today and are at levels last seen in 2008.

Investors are speculating the Supreme Court will overturn aspects of the Affordable Care Act, benefiting managed-care companies, Dave Shove, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, told Bloomberg News.

Aetna (AET) rose $3.074 to $49.56. Cigna (CI) climbed $1.90 to $48.97. Health Net (HNT) was up $1.50 to $39.45. Humana (HUM) rallied $2.90 to $91.54. UnitedHealth (UNH) jumped $2.67 to $58.11. WellPoint (WLP) rose $1.62 to $71.62.

Leaders and laggards
Red Hat (RHT) gained 19.5% to $61.43 and was the biggest gainer among S&P 500 stocks. The software maker that specializes in the Linux operating system and other open-source programs reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that exceeded analyst forecasts. The company also will buy back as much as $300 million of its stock.

Illumina (ILMN) rose $2.52 to $52.40. Roche Holding raised its hostile bid for the maker of DNA analysis equipment by 15% to about $6.7 billion, or $51 a share. Today's price suggests investors are speculating the bid will be raised again.

Big Lots (BIG) fell $2.17 to $43.42, second-most among S&P 500 stocks. The discount retailer’s sales trends are "not as good as we’d hoped," Deutsche Bank analyst Charles Gromwrote in a note after meeting with the company’s management including CEO Steven Fishman.

Fertilizer maker Mosaic (MOS) shares were down $2.95 to $55.27. The company said it earned 64 cents a share in its fiscal third quarter, down from $1.21 a year earlier. Analysts had expected 69 cents. The company cited lower potash volumes and higher phosphate raw-material costs for the slump. Those factors were "transient events," CEO James Prokopanko said on today's analyst call.

Short hits from the markets -- New York close
			Thur.			Wed.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Treasury yields
13-week Treasury bill			0.0600%			0.070%			-25.00%			500.00%
5-year Treasury note			1.014%			1.028%			15.89%			22.17%
10-year Treasury note			2.159%			2.196%			9.21%			15.39%
30-year Treasury bond			3.271%			3.304%			5.99%			13.22%
Currencies
U.S. Dollar Index			79.357			79.299			0.71%			-1.45%
British pound			1.5941			1.5896			0.05%			2.60%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in pounds			£0.627			£0.629			-0.05%			-2.53%
Euro in dollars			$1.33			$1.33			-0.35%			2.61%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in euros			€ 0.752			€ 0.751			0.35%			-2.54%
U.S. $ in yen			82.58			82.89			1.49%			7.10%
U.S. $ in Chinese			6.33			6.30			0.15%			0.03%
yuan
Canada dollar			$0.000			$0.998			-100.00%			-100.00%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. dollar			$0.998			$0.998			0.93%			-2.18%
(in Canadian $)
Commodities
Gold (-GC)			$1,652.20			$1,657.90			-3.45%			5.45%
(per troy ounce)
Copper (-HG)			$3.797			$3.793			-2.14%			10.49%
(per pound)
Silver (-SI)			$31.9920			$31.8310			-7.65%			14.61%
(per troy ounce)
Wheat (-ZW)			$6.1250			$6.3075			-8.31%			-6.17%
(per bushel)
Corn (-ZC)			$6.0400			$6.203			-8.21%			-6.57%
(per bushel)
Cotton			$0.9373			0.9385			3.64%			2.24%
(per pound)
Coffee			$1.7915			1.847			-11.86%			-21.99%
(per pound)
Crude oil (-CL)			$102.78			$105.41			-4.01%			4.00%
(per barrel)