NEW YORK: US stocks pulled back in the final 30 minutes of trade on Tuesday to break even after a day in the red under the weight of more eurozone gloom.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average clawed back from a 92 point loss to end up 4.24 points (0.03 percent) at 12,878.28.
The broad-based S&P 500 closed down 1.27 points (0.09 percent) to 1,350.50, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.44 (0.02 percent) at 2,931.83.
Moody's ratings and outlook downgrades of nine EU countries and problems with the impending Greek rescue deal kept a cloud over the market for most of the session.
But stocks got some help from from new data on US retail sales in January, which grew 0.4 percent in a month, a pickup from December's flat performance.
Analysts had mixed views of the data: it was an upturn from the poor fourth quarter, but not as large as hoped.
"Despite the lower-than-expected total sales, 'core' retail sales, the trend-defining component, rebounded dynamically," said Harm Bandholz of Unicredit.
Bank of America, down 3.3 percent, led the losers among the Dow blue chips while Hewlett-Packard was the biggest gainer, up 1.2 percent.
Just listed in December, fashion house Michael Kors leapt 27.2 percent after reporting a 40 percent jump in net earnings in its third quarter results, beating forecasts.
Popular clothing and accessories chain Fossil put on 14.7 percent after predicting a strong year helped by its recent purchase of Danish watchmaker Skagen.
Cloud computing service Rackspace Hosting surged 12.6 percent after turning in an 85 percent climb in fourth quarter net income, well over analysts' expectations.
Yahoo shares sank 4.7 percent on a media report that talks on selling off its Asian holdings had hit an impasse.
Bond prices rose.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.92 percent from 1.99 percent Monday, while the 30-year slipped to 3.07 percent from 3.14 percent.
Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
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