The Federal Reserve announced a three-day, $38 billion agreement to inject liquidity into the market and assure wary investors caught up in an uncertain crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average staged a late comeback and finished down 31.14 points, or 0.23 percent, at 13,239.54 after a wild session.

The Nasdaq composite index was down 11.60,or 0.45 percent, at $2,544.89 and the Standard and Poor 500 was up .55, or 0.04 percent at 1,455.50.

The volume on the New York Stock Exchange was 2.53 billion shares with 1,295 stocks rising and 2,078 falling.

Light, sweet crude fell 12 cents to settle at $71.47 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, weighed down again by worries about global economic growth. It has fallen five of the last six sessions, but is still up 17% year to date.

Bonds rose with the benchmark 10-year note up 5/32, or $1.5625 for every $1,000 invested, yielding 4.800 percent.

The dollar was mixed. The euro was recently at $1.3698 from $1.3683 late Thursday, while the dollar was at 118.49 yen, from 118.30 late Thursday.