Wall Street hardly changed, recovers on the day

U.S. stocks were hardly changed with slight positive closes in the Dow and S&P.

The Dow industrials, however, managed a new nine-month high closing at 18,053.60 and rising 49.44 points, or 0.3%, despite a big  drop of 5.6% in IBM Corp. shares. The S&P 500 advanced 6.46 points, or 0.3%, to close at 2,100.80 and this was the highest close since Dec 1st. The Nasdaq shed 19.69 points, or 0.4%, to end at 4,940.33.

Elsewhere, the greenback was on the back-foot against most currencies accept the Yen, with the euro, pound and commodity-linked rivals advancing higher.  Oil was making further gains and made a high of $41.00 while data in the U.S. was weak with housing missing expectations.