Stocks End Mixed After Bear Scare

The Bear-sparked tumult pushed to the backburner a disappointing industrial production report, which revealed a decline of 0.5% in February following three straight months of growth. The consensus called for a contraction of just 0.1%. Capacity utilization, however, registered at 80.9%, down from last month, and well below the point at which inflationary concerns would crop up. Estimates were for 81.3%.

Separately, the New York Federal Reserve said its Empire State Index, another manufacturing measure, indicated a severe contraction in March with a negative 22.2 reading. That nearly doubles from the prior month, whereas economists were looking for an improvement to minus 7.4. The index's break-even point is at zero.

Elsewhere on the economic docket, net foreign purchases came in at $62 billion for January, up from $56.2 billion in the prior month and $2 billion more than expected.

The dollar slid to another record low against the euro, bottoming at $1.5903 earlier. Against the yen, the greenback hit 95.76, the worst point in more than a dozen years.

Among commodities, crude oil reached a record high of $111.80 a barrel before pulling back to a penny gain at $105.69. Gold futures touched an all-time best of $1,033.90 an ounce earlier before retreating to $1,002.60, up $3.10 from the prior settlement.

Treasury prices were surging. The 10-year note was up 30/32 in price to yield 3.33%, and the 30-year bond gained 1-5/32 in price, yielding 4.29%.

Back in corporate news, lumber company Weyerhaeuser (WY Quote) rose 1.8% after saying it will sell its containerboard packaging and recycling business to International Paper (IP Quote) for $6 billion in cash. IP shares gave back 8.7%.

Also, CME Group (CME Quote) has finally struck a deal to buy out fellow commodities exchange Nymex (NMX Quote), agreeing to pay $9.48 billion in cash and stock. CME shed 7.6%, and Nymex surrendered 11.6%.

Yet another deal will see H&R Block (HRB Quote) sell the mortgage loan servicing business of its Option One Mortgage unit to billionaire investor Wilbur Ross. Shares of Block tacked on 5.1% at $18.36.

Overseas, Asian markets took a tumble overnight. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo lost 3.7% to 11,788, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index plummeted 5.2% to 21,085. In Europe, the FTSE 100 in London, Germany's Xetra Dax and the Paris Cac all dropped 3.5% or more.