US stocks closed mixed Tuesday amid conflicting signals on whether the Federal Reserve would move again to address the credit crunch roiling the financial markets. Stocks scored solid gains after Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee said Bernanke was ready to use "all the tools at his disposal" to ease the liquidity issues troubling Wall Street. Dodd, also a contender for his party's presidential nomination, spoke after a closed-door meeting with Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Stocks had opened lower in the immediate aftermath of televised comments by Paulson, who told CNBC that the economy remains strong, but conceded that "what's going on in capital markets will take a penalty."

The 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average fell 30.49, or 0.23%, to 13,090.86 after moving in and out of positive territory throughout the day. Broader market indexes were slightly higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.57, or 0.11%, to 1,447.12, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 12.71, or 0.51%, to 2,521.30. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies added 0.93, or 0.12%, to 788.38.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 3-to-2 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 2.95 billion shares, compared with 3.3 billion shares traded Monday.

Bonds continued to rally as more investors moved money from stocks to the safer haven of the Treasury market. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.59 percent from 4.63 percent late Monday. Bond prices move opposite their yields.

The day's trading session echoed the erratic pattern seen Monday, when the Dow changed course several times and swung in a 200-point range before closing only slightly higher. But Tuesday's volatility was much more mild, free from triple-digit swings, as investors took a more cautious tone.


Indian ADRs end lower; Patni bucks trend by gaining 9.5% on news that PE investors to pick stake

Indian ADRs had a bad day yesterday and all of them ended lower with the exception on Patni Computers which spurted 9.5% on news that PE investors are likely to pick up stake in the company. The major losers were Infosys and Satyam Computers.

In the technology pack, Patni Computers was up 9.54% at 21.12, Infosys Technologies was down 4.53% at 44.50, Satyam Computers was down 3.69% at 23 and Wipro was down 3.26% at 13.34.

In the non-tech pack, Tata Motors was down 3.76% at 15.60, HDFC Bank was down 1.49% at 80.84, VSNL was down 1.19% at 18.31, Dr Reddy's Lab was down 1.42% at 15.22, ICICI Bank was down 2.48% at 40.85, MTNL was down 2.51% at 6.48 and Sterlite was down 2.63% at 13.69.