The stock market closed mostly higher Tuesday after a huge two-session rally, even after disappointing reports on consumer sentiment and the housing market.
Share prices slid early in the day, with the Dow Jones industrial average trading down nearly 100 points, after the Conference Board said its consumer confidence index sank to a five-year low in March and the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index indicated that U.S. home prices fell 11.4% in January, the steepest drop in more than 20 years.
After shooting up a total of nearly 450 points Thursday and Monday, the Dow closed down 16.04 points, or 0.1%, to 12,532.60.
Despite the Dow's drop, most market indexes scored modest gains to mark their third consecutive advance. That boosted hopes that the market could stay in recovery mode after the heavy losses of recent weeks.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.11 points, or 0.2%, to 1,352.99, recording its first daily change of less than 1% in more than a week.
The Nasdaq composite index added 14.30 points, or 0.6%, to 2,341.05.
The Russell 2,000 index of smaller-company stocks rose 3.99 points, or 0.6%, to 705.27.
Winners topped losers by nearly 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading volume continued to ebb from last week's strong pace.
Treasury yields fell after rising sharply Monday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year T-note sank to 3.51% from 3.56% late Monday. The dollar fell against other major currencies.
Oil prices wobbled. Crude futures settled at $101.22 a barrel, up 36 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Commodity-related stocks, high-flying until a sharp downturn this month, were the standouts Tuesday as prices of key raw materials rebounded for a second day.
The Reuters/Jefferies CRB index of 19 raw materials, which plunged 9.2% in the week that ended Thursday, is up 2.1% since last week, including a 1.6% rise Tuesday.
"Prices across the commodity space dropped pretty dramatically" last week, said Malcolm Polley, chief investment officer at Stewart Capital Advisors in Indiana, Pa. "That gave investors like myself that pay attention to valuations an opportunity to start to build positions in names we like."
Among commodity-related shares, fertilizer maker Potash rose $6 to $156.80, U.S. Steel gained $6.06 to $124.56 and Southern Copper added $2.16 to $104.02.
