Dealers said some market players were staying at home on Tuesday. The Dow was up 28.92 points to 10,591.2. It too gave up earlier gains of about 100 points. The turnaround in sentiment may owe something to nostalgia. This time last year technology stocks touched lifetime highs.
Pessimism reaches such a peak and then psychology turns on a dime - for no apparent reason.
But that's how markets behave. The index closed up 80.7 points at 6012.0. Hardened to bad news US investors, in particular, seem to have become hardened to bad news as they shrugged off profit warnings from the semiconductor and chip-maker sector. Investors were also oblivious to downgrades by analysts on technology manufacturer Cisco Systems and internet service provider Yahoo. But it still managed to defy a downgrade by Banc of America Montgomery Securities.