The S&P 500 and NASDAQ ended up slightly on Tuesday, breaking a three-day string of declines that marked their worst losses since 2011, while the Dow finished lower for a fourth session on lingering worries about global demand. the Dow is down 1.6 percent since Dec. 31. For a factbox on the market's selloff, see "Today's action is typical of a market that hasn't completed its downward course," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York. "In order for this market to escape further declines, we would have to see the market begin to stabilize and not slip in and out of the plus and minus column consistently." The selloff has been driven by a host of negative influences including the potential spread of Ebola, the effect of global economic weakness on U.S. earnings and plunging oil prices. The Dow Jones industrial average (DJI) fell 5.88 points, or 0.04 percent, to 16,315.19, the S&P 500 (SPX) gained 2.96 points, or 0.16 percent, to 1,877.7 and the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) added 13.52 points, or 0.32 percent, to 4,227.17.
