Stocks End Volatile Day Mixed

The unemployment rate, as computed by the Labor Department, was 6.7% in November, and is expected to rise to 7% for December.

If you add in workers in part-time positions who cannot find full-time employment, the hidden unemployment rate is about 13%, according to Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business and former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Not helping investor confidence, were the uncovering of more potential Ponzi schemes -- an illegal venture that brought market maker Bernard Madoff to recent infamy. Investment manager Joseph Forte, of Broomall, Pa, has been charged by federal authorities with running an investment scheme that involved roughly $50 million from as many as 80 investors.

And Madoff's $50 billionscheme is now being investigated by Britain's Serious Fraud Office, with a focus on his victims in the U.K.

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

Longer dated Treasuries were mixed early Thursday afternoon; the 10-year note was climbing 15/32 to yield 2.4% after an auction of $16 billion of reopened 10-year notes, and the 30-year was down 7/32, yielding 3.1%.

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."

Overseas, the FTSE in London and the DAX in Frankfurt lost ground as did Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng.