NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The Dow 30 crawled back into positive territory for the year Wednesday, recovering from a drubbing Tuesday, but the broader market drifted in a tumultuous session.

As of 5:45 p.m. ET, Nasdaq and S&P futures pointed to a flat open for stocks, when fair value is taken into account.

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The Dow Jones industrial average (Charts) rose nearly 0.2 percent, after falling into the red for the year as part of Tuesday's big selloff.

The broader S&P 500 (Charts) index added a few points and the Nasdaq composite (Charts) was little changed.

The three major gauges see-sawed on both sides of unchanged throughout the session as investors weighed competing influences, including: a strong read on consumer confidence, a surge in oil prices and a flattening of the yield curve after an earlier inversion -- in which the ten-year note fell below the two-year, which could indicate an economic slowdown.

"The yield curve issue still has people on edge, and you felt the impact of that this morning," said Peter Cardillo, chief market analyst at S.W. Bach & Co.

"But you're also seeing managers wanting to beef up their portfolios into year end and I think that's being felt more this afternoon," he added. "The pull between these competing influences is likely to continue through the end of the week."

Other factors at play Wednesday included the morning's strong read on consumer confidence in December and a nearly 3 percent jump in oil prices. Higher oil prices can upset investors, but on Wednesday, they seemed to provide a catalyst for scooping up recently beaten-down oil stocks.

The market was also choppier than usual due to the fact that many Wall Streeters are on vacation this week. As such, the see-saw trading this week should not be interpreted as representative of a broader trend, some analysts said.

"Usually what happens during the holidays is that by late December things quiet down, because anyone who needed to get anything done by year-end has probably done it already," said Maria Fiorini Ramirez, president of Maria Fiorini Ramirez Inc.

"I think because of the subway strike last week, that happened a little early this year."

Year-to-date, the Dow is up 0.2 percent, the S&P is up 3.8 percent and the Nasdaq is up around 2.5 percent.

Thursday brings reads on weekly jobless claims, weekly oil inventories, November existing home sales and the December read on manufacturing in the Midwest.

The three major gauges each lost around 1 percent Tuesday as investors bailed out of a slew of sectors near the year's end and kept an eye on the yield curve, which inverted for the first time in five years, reviving worries about an economic slowdown.

On Wednesday morning, the 10-year note yield again briefly dipped below that of the two-year -- a so-called inversion of the yield curve for the second day running.

However, the yield curve flattened out as the day wore on, with the ten-year remaining above the two-year. (For more on what an inversion of the yield curve could mean, click here.)

Ramirez said that because people have been watching the curve and predicting an inversion for some time, it's not having as big an impact.

"More interesting is the level at which it is going to invert," she added. "I think the inversion is coming at a much lower level than anticipated."

U.S. light crude oil for February delivery advanced $1.66 to settle at $59.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

That move cut into the stock advance Wednesday, but also sparked a rally in the oil sector, which suffered heavily in Tuesday's selloff.

The Amex Oil (Charts) Index jumped 1.6 percent, with Valero Energy (Research), ConocoPhillips (Research) and Exxon Mobil (Research) among the gainers.

In addition to Exxon, other Dow 30 gainers included Alcoa (Research) and 3M (Research).

The Dow's biggest decliner was General Motors (Research), which lost 2 percent.

Among other movers, drugmaker Celgene (Research) climbed nearly 6 percent after announcing that regulators had approved its treatment for a rare bone marrow disorder. The company also announced a 2-for-1 stock split and some management changes.

Linens N Things (Research) jumped almost 11 percent after the home furnishings retailer said it should meet financial targets necessary for a potential takeover by buyout firm Apollo Management LP.

Market breadth was positive and volume was moderate. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners topped losers five to three as 830 million shares changed hands. On the Nasdaq, advancers edged decliners by a slim margin on volume of almost 1 billion shares.

Adding support to stocks: a strong reading on consumer confidence in December. The Conference Board's index jumped to 103.6 from a downwardly revised 98.3 in November, topping analysts' estimates.

The dollar was little changed versus the euro and higher versus the yen.

COMEX gold for February delivery jumped $6.40 to $516.50 an ounce.