US mkts end with moderate gain; Dow up 20 pts

US stocks saw a choppy session but the market eventually finished the day with a slight gain. Stocks remained afloat as the market digested a mixed bag of economic data and some good news from the financial markets.

Merrill Lynch helped financial shares rebound after CEO John Thain told Japan's Nikkei newspaper that the company won't need to raise capital. The stock ended higher.

Economic data came in mixed. Weekly jobless claims rose more than expected to 407,000, the highest since September 2005. The ISM's monthly reading on the services sector was better-than-expected at 49.6 for March. The market got some additional stamina during a hearing on the bailout of Bear Stearns from the senate testimony by Bernanke. He said the central bank expects to recover most, if not all, of the $ 29 billion in loans. According to a wall street journal report, the Fed has stationed itself inside brokerage firms to monitor their financial conditions.

The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 20.20 points, or 0.16%, to 12,626.03. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 1.78 points, or 0.13%, to 1,369.31, and the Nasdaq composite index added 1.90 points, or 0.08%, to 2,363.30.

A look at how the Indian ADRs performed: