US stocks end flat as energy shares drop with oil

However, he said he was bargain-hunting in the worst-affected sectors, such as luxury goods, and predicted broader European stock markets should soon stabilize.

A rocky week for the stock market ended on a bright note as investors bought stocks across industries.

Google (Xetra: A0B7FY – news) announced a new corporate structure in which the search engine company will become part of a larger company that will be called Alphabet.

“The fact that the Beijing authorities had to do three supposedly one-off interventions to prove to the world that its economy isn’t heading for a hard landing says it all”, said David Madden, market analyst at IG.

Six of the S&P 500’s 10 main groups rose, led by energy, utilities and technology companies. In China, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 0.4%, while the Shanghai Composite Index on the mainland added 1.8%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA – 17,419.75) was down by as many as 178 points, and finished on a loss of 120.7 points, or 0.7% – its sixth straight daily defeat, marking the longest losing streak since October.

The Nasdaq composite rose 11 points, or 0.2 percent, to 5,056.

China’s central bank let its currency fall again on Wednesday, following a surprising devaluation the day before.

“We were in a sell-first-ask-questions-later mode, but we’ve rallied back”, said Piers Cornelius, a managing director at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. (NYSE:WMT) and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) will headline a plethora of retail names reporting.

And after reports from OPEC and the worldwide Energy Agency reiterating a supply glut, crude oil is falling to new lows and has slipped below $42 per barrel.

Sean Lynch, co-head of global equity strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, said investors have been remarkably calm in the face of several potentially unnerving events, including a slowing Chinese economy, Greece’s debt troubles, plunging oil prices and the Federal Reserve possibly raising interest rates next month.

“We’re saying ‘stay on the road, don’t get off, but have your safety belt on because you may be in for a ride, ‘” he said. “It’s been trading at a narrow range despite all the noise”.

The S&P 500 opened down on follow-through from Asian and European weakness.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 0.8 percent Wednesday to 13.82, erasing an earlier jump of nearly 19 percent.

Europe had a tougher week. In Germany, the DAX was down 0.4%, shares of France’s CAC 40 were off 0.7%, and London shares were down 0.3% on the FTSE 100 stock index.

All the back-and-forth action has left major indexes only slightly up for the week. Kaja Whitehouse tells you what this means for both the US and China. The threat of a slowdown in China could harm global growth, while lower commodity prices damp inflation. For the week, it was down 3 percent after hitting a six-year low on Thursday. Brent traded near $49.60 a barrel.

– Heating oil fell 1.1 cents to close at $1.558 a gallon.

Tesla rose 1.6 percent to $242.07 after unveiling plans to raise about $500 million through a share sale, with CEO Elon Musk buying shares worth up to $20 million.

In metals trading, gold fell $2.90 to $1,112.70 an ounce and silver dropped 18.6 cents to $15.21 an ounce. Copper was little changed at $2.35 per pound.