Dow ekes out gain, other indexes slip

Whew - glad this week is over. Today's session resembled a sharp earthquake, with periods of violent rocking back and forth, and then, thankfully, a bit of calm. When it was over the Dow managed a 60-point gain, to 11,444. There are no obvious explanations for the sudden starts and stops, other than an immediate pop on the job news early this morning, followed by a sell-off from the bears, followed by a mini-rally that was attributed to some vaguely positive news on Italian debt. None of which makes up for Thursday's 515-point loss, or any of the previous down days - and let's not forget that both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down on Friday. But at least investors won't be starting off the weekend in panic mode. (Dow chart is from the NYT; times are Eastern)