By Whitney Kisling Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks swung between gains and losses as rising energy prices lifted oil and coal producers, offsetting a report of higher-than-expected jobless claims that sent stocks tumbling earlier. Consol Energy Inc., the nation’s third-biggest coal producer, and Hess Corp., the fifth-biggest U.S. oil producer, rose as much as 9 percent. American Electric Power Company Inc. added 2.5 percent after the utility company reaffirmed forecasts for 2008 and 2009. General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. slid more than 4 percent as the White House raced to convince Senate Republicans to approve a rescue of the auto industry. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.4 percent to 895.63 at 11:28 a.m. in New York after falling as much as 1.5 percent earlier. Energy shares posted the steepest gains among 10 industries. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 36.56 points, or 0.4 percent, to 8,724.86, paring a 144-point tumble. The Russell 2000 Index of small companies slipped 0.9 percent. “There are finally some buyers stepping into this market, using the weakness in the morning,” said Craig Hodges, a fund manager at Dallas-based Hodges Capital Management Inc., which oversees $1 billion. “When you see stocks go up on bad news that means the market has probably bottomed. That’s a good sign.” Stocks climbed from their lows of the day as Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude producer, signaled it would cut output more than analysts forecast. Earlier declines were triggered by U.S. government reports showing jobless claims jumped 58,000 to 573,000, a 26-year high, last week and the nation’s trade deficit unexpectedly widened 1.1 percent in October following a third straight decrease in exports. Retreat From Record The S&P 500 is down 43 percent from its 2007 record as the collapse of the subprime mortgage market curbed earnings for five straight quarters and dragged the nation into a recession that’s lasted a year so far. Consol climbed 3.9 percent to $32.89 and earlier rallied to $34.83. Hess jumped 8.5 percent to $48.49, helping lead the S&P 500 Energy Index to a 2.4 percent gain. Crude oil for January delivery rose $2.38, or 5.5 percent, to $45.90 a barrel in New York. Futures, which have dropped 53 percent this year, are heading for the biggest annual decline since trading began in 1983, as global economies falter. Automaker Bailout GM slid 33 cents to $4.27 while Ford lost 15 cents to $3.10. Democratic leaders and the Bush administration are trying to beat a deadline to save the companies and the millions of jobs dependent on the industry before GM and Chrysler burn through their remaining cash. For GM, that could be in three weeks. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index fell 0.6 percent today as concern that the economic slowdown from China to America is deepening weighed on automakers, overshadowing a rally in oil producers. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose for a fifth day, the longest winning streak in seven months, as South Korea cut interest rates to a record low. Procter & Gamble Co., the world’s largest consumer-products maker, fell 0.4 percent to $58.90. Second-quarter sales will rise less than previously thought as consumers cut back on spending, the company said. P&G gets about half its sales from household care products. Ciena Corp. slumped the most in the S&P 500, dropping 18 percent to $6.18. The maker of network equipment for customers such as AT&T Inc. posted an adjusted fourth-quarter loss of 10 cents a share on a cutback in orders from telephone companies. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected a 4-cent profit. U.S. Bancorp U.S. Bancorp fell 6.2 percent to $25.96 after saying at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. conference that it expects net charge- offs, or the cost of bad loans that won’t fully be repaid, of about $600 million to $650 million and an impairment of $200 million to $300 million this quarter. The shares have dropped 19 percent this year. The S&P 500 this week marked a technical end to a 14-month bear market, extending its rebound from an 11-year low last month to 21 percent, as President-elect Barack Obama stepped up efforts to pull the economy out of a recession. The VIX, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, has dropped 31 percent since Nov. 20, when it rose to 80.86, the highest in its 18-year history. The S&P 500’s companies reported an average 18 percent decline in profits in the third quarter, prompting analysts to cut estimates for next year. They now project profit growth of 8.2 percent for S&P 500 companies in 2009, about one-third of their forecast of 23 percent at the end of the third quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. To contact the reporter on this story: Whitney Kisling in New York at wkisling@bloomberg.net.

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