US stocks rise after volatile day

Market turbulence looks likely to continue

US share indexes ended up on Thursday after a volatile day's trading that had earlier seen them fall sharply due to the weak dollar and record oil prices.

The Dow Jones, which had been down 200 points at one point, eventually ended up 36 points to 12,146.

Analysts said investor sentiment was improved by a report suggesting that the worst of the US bad mortgage debt crisis may now be over.

However, continuing market jitters are expected in the coming weeks.

The Nasdaq index finished up 20 points to 2,264.

European and Asian stocks earlier closed lower, with the UK's main FTSE 100 index finishing down 84 points to 5,692.

Germany's Dax lost 1.5%, France's Cac gave up 1.4%, and Japan's Nikkei closed down 3.3%.

Retail woes

US stocks had fallen upon opening after the price of a barrel of benchmark US light crude oil passed $110, while gold hit $1,000 for the first time.

We are entering dollar crisis mode Currency economist Derek Halpenny

US investor sentiment was further hit by official figures showing a larger than expected fall in American retail sales in February.

However, the good news that lifted shares towards the end of the day came from credit rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P), which said the end was in sight for bad mortgage debt write-downs.

"The positive news is that, in our opinion, the global financial sector appears to have already disclosed the majority of valuation write-downs of sub-prime asset-backed securities," S&P credit analyst Scott Bugie said in a report.

'Loss of confidence'

"The dollar will remain the dominant factor until the Federal Reserve meeting next Tuesday," said analyst Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix.

"But oil will also have to balance with equities under the pressure of more credit hedge funds going belly-up."

"We are entering dollar crisis mode," said Derek Halpenny, currency economist at BTM-UFJ in London.

"Looking at the markets there is a complete loss of confidence and that's because the markets are concerned over the US financial sector and ultimately what the Federal Reserve will be forced to do to support that sector."