Bed Bath & Beyond Has a Lousy Day

The stock market's word of the day: choppy. Major indexes were in the red for much of Thursday before rebounding enough to land in positive territory. Barely. The Dow rose 18 points to 33,999, the S&P 500 ticked up 9 points to 4,283, and the Nasdaq rose 27 points to 12,965. The gains mark a slight rebound from Wednesday's rough day. Tech and energy stocks (including Cisco Systems and Devon Energy) did well on the day, though the department store Kohl's fell about 7% after a lackluster earnings forecast, reports the AP. Also of note: Bed Bath & Beyond fell 22% after major investor Ryan Cohen proposed selling his entire stake. (Another Bed Bath & Beyond investor did very, very well.)

“The market is looking for direction and it seems people are caught between the idea of slowing economic growth and slowing inflation," Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance, tells the AP. Another expert provided a similar take to CNBC. “I think the market is going to bounce a little bit back and forth probably for the foreseeable future, right now with a positive trend, because the market is still embedding within it the hope that the Fed is wrestling down inflation," says Cliff Corso of Advisors Asset Management. (More stock market stories.)