Wall Street stocks have ended lower in volatile trade spurred by the Yemen crisis.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 40.31 points (0.23 per cent) to 17,678.23 on Thursday.
The blue-chip index had fallen below 17,600 earlier in the session.
The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 4.90 (0.24 per cent) to 2,056.15, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 13.16 (0.27 per cent) at 4,863.36.
Oil prices rose sharply as a Saudi-led coalition bombed Houthi Shi’ite rebels in support of Yemen’s embattled president.
Iran condemned the intervention.
US stocks seemed headed for another rout in early trade after Wednesday’s losses but clawed back into positive territory at mid-afternoon before finishing modestly in the red.
“At least for today, the buy-the-dip mentality has been in effect,” said Michael James, managing director for equity trading at Wedbush Securities.
Airline stocks were hit by higher oil prices and news that a pilot appeared to have intentionally caused the deadly Germanwings plane crash on Tuesday.
American Airlines dropped 1.4 per cent and United Continental fell 0.9 per cent.
SanDisk, which manufactures data storage devices, sank 18.5 per cent as it slashed its first-quarter revenue forecast to $US1.3 billion ($A1.66 billion) from the previous $US1.40-$US1.45 billion.
Software company Red Hat bolted 10.3 per cent higher after announcing a $US500 million stock repurchase program.
Net income for the fourth quarter rose 5.8 per cent to $US47.7 million.
Yoga-attire maker Lululemon Athletica jumped 4.9 per cent as revenues for the quarter ending on February 1 rose 15.6 per cent to $US602.5 million.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.00 per cent from 1.93 per cent on Wednesday, while the 30-year advanced to 2.59 per cent from 2.51 per cent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
