DOW - No damage? Did Asian markets over-reacted?

Dow

12,229.29

-10.60

-0.09%

By: JeeYeon Park

Stocks ended mixed with the Dow snapping an eight-day winning streak as weak tech earnings weighed on the market. But hopes for a possible resolution to the political unrest in Egypt lifted equities off their intraday lows

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 10.60 points, to close at 12,229.29, after squeezing out an eighth straight day of gains in the previous session. But the index is still on pace for its 10th weekly gain in 11 weeks.



The S&P 500 eked out a gain of 0.99 points, to finish at 1,321.87 and the Nasdaq rose 1.38 points, to end at 2,790.45. The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, rose above 16.

Among the key S&P 500 sectors, techs, consumer staples and financials were lower, while energy and telecom stocks were higher.

"I'm not saying the market is desperately cheap, but it's certainly not overly giddy either," Jack Caffrey, market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus told CNBC. "We're overweight equities and we continue to be cautiously optimistic about the direction for the economy."

Meanwhile, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak confirmed he would not run for the presidency again and said those who died during Egypt's unrest did not die in vain, adding he felt the pain of those who had lost family members.

"I think it's a near-term net positive for the markets as it lowers the blood pressure on what was a very tense situation," David Joy, chief market strategist at Columbia Management told CNBC.

Meanwhile, some experts told investors to watch commodity prices.

"This is a commodity inflation issue that is running across the Middle East," Dan Dicker, senior contributor for The Street, told CNBC. "The government is getting involved and they're stockpiling right and left...this is the real issue that's going on in the Middle East and a simple regime change over in Egypt doesn't change that. The commodity trade is the one that you should be on."

Oil futures posted slight gains to trade above $87 a barrel in extended-trading after the news. And the dollar rose broadly, while the euro slumped as investors worried about Europe's lack of progress in tackling a sovereign debt crisis.