Stocks Ease Off the Lows of the Day

Taking a look at commodities, oil fell 93 cents to settle at $41.70 a barrel, while gold added $12.80 to settle at $854.50 an ounce.

Longer dated Treasuries were mixed early Thursday afternoon; the 10-year note was climbing 9.5/32 to yield 2.5% after an auction of $16 billion of reopened 10-year notes, and the 30-year was down 6/32, yielding 3%.

Indirect bidders, which include foreign central banks, took about 18% of the auction, in line with long-term averages, according to a Reuters report. Typically, foreign demand for reopened auctions is less than for new issues, it noted.

"For those worried that the U.S. will have difficulty raising money to fund its battle against the financial and economic crisis, today's data are welcome, wrote chief bond market strategist for Miller Tabak, Tony Crescenzi, in his Real Money blog. "Nevertheless, with U.S. borrowing needs continuous and growing, plenty of challenges lie ahead."

The dollar was weaker against the euro, pound and yen.

Overseas, the FTSE in London and the DAX in Frankfurt were giving up ground Thursday. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended with losses.