NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Stocks ended little changed Tuesday, after a choppy session in which fluctuating oil prices, the weak dollar and light volume kept investors on edge.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 3.18 to 10,492.60, Charts), the Standard & Poor's 500 (down 0.30 to 1,176.94, Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (down 0.91 to 2,084.28, Charts) all closed little changed.

Stocks zigzagged through the session with investors reacting to changes in oil prices and the dollar, as well as morning downgrades of Intel and others in the semiconductor space.

A spike in oil prices in late morning took the major gauges to their lows for the session, but the market showed resilience, clawing back as oil retreated.

Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, advancers beat decliners by nearly 3 to 2 on volume of 1.42 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, winners topped losers 8 to 7 on volume of 2.08 billion shares.

Volume is apt to remain light and trading jittery through Wednesday, with many Wall Street professionals skipping out early ahead of Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday.

"You're going to see increased volatility through the end of the week, and it's probably going to be even worse Friday," said Tom Schrader, managing director of U.S. equity trading at Legg Mason.

"Low volume tends to exacerbate any moves, and I think on Friday everyone on Wall Street is going to have skeleton crews on staff."

Wednesday brings a slew of economic news. Reports on durable goods orders and initial jobless claims are due before the bell. After the start of trading, reports are due on new home sales, weekly oil inventories and the revised reading on consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan.

Among stock movers, Intel (down $0.73 to $23.37, Research) fell 3 percent after Credit Suisse First Boston downgraded the Dow stock to "underperform" from "outperform."

CSFB also downgraded On Semiconductor, (down $0.15 to $3.80, Research) Fairchild Semiconductor, (down $0.69 to $15.26, Research) and Conexant Systems. (down $0.14 to $1.82, Research)

Dow component AIG (up $1.35 to $64.20, Research) gained 2.1 percent on news that it has agreed to settle with the Department of Justice and is near to settling with the Securities and Exchange Commission in relation to a probe regarding its transactions with PNC Financial Services Group.

McDonald's (up $0.72 to $30.10, Research) added 2.5 percent. Late Monday, the fast food giant said Chief Executive Officer Charlie Bell stepped down, effective immediately, to battle cancer.

Sirius Satellite Radio (up $0.74 to $6.71, Research) rallied 12.4 percent and topped the Nasdaq's most-actives list after the company said it had passed the 800,000 subscriber mark and was primed to have 1 million subscribers by the end of the year.

H.J. Heinz Co. (down $0.61 to $37.78, Research) shares fell after the company said it missed second-quarter forecasts, earning 56 cents a share versus analysts' average forecast of 59 cents.

U.S. light crude for January delivery gained 30 cents to settle at $48.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price of oil had been much higher earlier, briefly topping the $50-a-barrel level, which has become a key psychological threshold recently.

The dollar touched another all-time low versus the euro, a dubious achievement it has managed several times in recent weeks. The greenback also hovered not far from a four-year low versus the yen.

The October read on existing home sales was released about 30 minutes after the start of trading. Sales fell to a 6.75 million unit annual rate, meeting expectations, but short of an upwardly revised 6.76 million unit annual rate in September.

Treasury prices were barely lower, with the 10-year note yield at 4.18 percent, up from 4.17 percent late Monday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Gold futures held near a multi-year high. Even though December COMEX gold closed down $1.20 to settle at $447.90 an ounce, prices remained near mid-1988 highs after rallying by nearly $12 an ounce in the past week (Click here for gold prices.)