Late rally erases steep losses on Wall Street

CBS/iStockphoto

(AP) NEW YORK - Stocks are ending the day mixed after a sharp recovery in the last hour of trading.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down seven points Wednesday at 12,496.

The threat of a financial crisis spreading from Europe shook markets. The euro dropped to a nearly two-year low against the dollar and oil prices sank to their lowest this year. The Dow spent most of the day down more than 100 points, then recovered 84 points in the final hour.

Facebook rebounded 3 percent to $32 after two days of losses.

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The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose two points to 1,319. The Nasdaq rose 11 points to 2,850.

Three stocks rose for every two that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was above average at 4 billion.