Stocks Flat After Roller Coaster

Stocks ended mainly flat after mixed news had indices seesawing throughout today's session, the Wall Street Journal reports. Economic news was bad in general, but Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and housing regulators cheered the markets with upbeat comments. The Dow ended up 9.36 to 12,694.28, the Nasdaq up 8.79 to 2,353.78, and the S&P down 1.27 to 1,380.02.

Still, this marks the fourth consecutive day of gains for the Dow, the Journal notes. And some investors are starting to bet that there won't be many more big pieces of bad news. "We're starting to see some signs that home sales could reach a bottom, perhaps in mid-year 2008," says one bond strategist. (More stock market stories.)