Stock gains evaporate: Benchmarks end in red

In another sign of just how volatile the stock market has been early in 2015, the Dow ended a bit in the red Tuesday after a wild, 400-point swing.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished down 0.2% -- about 27 points -- after being up about 281 points and down about 120 at one point.. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 0.3% -- a little more than 5 points -- after being up as much as 30 points. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 0.1%.

The early gains, which put the Dow Jones industrial average back within 77 points of the key 18,000 level, were driven by optimism following aluminum maker Alcoa's earnings beat last night and a better-than-expected reading on Chinese trade data. An upgrade of Apple also gave the market an early bid.

But in a sign of just how squeamish investors are, they viewed the markets' nearly 2% climb earlier in the day along with domestic and international developments as signals to start taking profits.

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Also turning the tide were rumors that the ECB might get some pushback from Germany on its plans to launch a bond-buying program to jumpstart the Eurozone economy. Other factors: Homebuilder KB Home (KB) warning that it won't meet its margin forecasts this year, the inability of oil to sustain its midday rebound and the broad S&P 500 briefly breaching its short-term uptrend line.

Oil prices continued to drop as crude briefly fell below $45 a barrel before paring early losses.

In corporate news, Credit Suisse upgraded Apple (AAPL) to "outperform" from "neutral" and raised its price target by $20 to $130 per share, citing strong sales of iPhones. Apple shares initially jumped almost 3% but fell back and were up 1.1% in afternoon trading.

Asian stocks were mixed. The Shanghai Composite was up 0.2% to 3235.30 as the trade data countered recent gloom over the slowdown in the world's No. 2 economy.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.6% to 17,087.71, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.8% to 24,215.97.

In European trading, France's CAC 40 jumped 1.5% to 4290.28 and Germany's DAX jumped 1.6% to 9941.00. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.6% to 6542.20.

On Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average finished 97 points lower in another day of big price swings, driven by another 5% plunge in oil prices

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 96.53 points, dropping 0.8% to 17,737 on Monday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 0.8% to 2028 and the Nasdaq composite index fell 0.8% to 4665.

Contributing: Associated Press