March 25th, 2010
05:02 PM ET

Stocks give up gains, dollar rebounds

A look at highlights from the day's business news:

Stocks abandon rally

Stocks gave up gains Thursday, ending little changed, as a late-session bounce in the dollar sapped the strength out of a rally that had pushed the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq near new 18-month highs. 

The Dow Jones industrial average added 5 points, or less than 0.1 percent according to early tallies. Earlier, it had risen as much as 119 points, to within 46 points of 11,000, before giving back most of those gains. The S&P 500 index lost 2 points, or 0.2 percent. The Nasdaq composite was little changed.

The market rallied through the early afternoon after Best Buy and Qualcomm issued upbeat profit forecasts and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said interest rates can stay low for a while.

Oil prices hang in $80 territory

Oil prices fell Thursday as renewed doubts over Greece's bail out plan overshadowed a positive jobs report.

What prices are doing: Crude oil for May delivery dipped 8 cents to settle at $80.53 a barrel.

What's moving the market: Prices pushed up to $81.48 a barrel earlier in trading, but they could not hold the gains for long as renewed doubt over a Greek bail overshadowed an upbeat jobs report. The positive news helped push all three stock indexes to new 18-month highs.

Dollar rebounds on EU discord

The dollar rebounded Thursday following reports that European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet has opposed a plan for the International Monetary Fund to provide support for Greece.

What prices are doing: The dollar was up 0.2 percent versus the euro to $1.3269 and gained 0.3 percent versus the UK pound to $1.4824. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar rose 0.4 percent to ÂĄ92.71.

What's moving the market: The euro came under pressure after reports surfaced that ECB president Trichet said IMF aid for Greece would be "very, very bad."

Long-term Treasurys continue losing streak

Long-term Treasurys continued to fall Thursday after the last of three auctions totaling $118 billion this week.

What prices are doing: The benchmark 10-year note fell 11/32 to 97-25/32, driving the yield up to 3.9 percent. The 30-year bond fell 17/32 to 97-24/32 with a yield of 4.77 percent. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The 5-year note gained 8/32 to 99-8/32 with a yield of 2.67 percent. The 2-year note was little changed at 99-26/32 with a yield of 1.11 percent.

What's moving the market: Thursday's auction of 7-year notes marked the last of this week's three government auctions issuing new supply of U.S. debt to fund the country's budget deficit.

CNNMoney.com reporters Chavon Sutton, Alexandra Twin, Ben Rooney and Annalyn Censky contributed to this report.

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