US stocks closed mostly lower Tuesday in volatile trade as a weaker-than-expected consumer confidence report stoked concerns about the pace of economic recovery from recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 14.21 points (0.14 percent) to finish at 9882.17, snapping a two-day decline.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 25.76 points (1.20 percent) to 2116.09 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index retreated 3.54 points (0.33 percent) to 1063.41.

"The Dow closed higher, but the stock market had a distinct negative slant today. Only a few stocks supported the Dow Industrials. The other major averages declined following a disappointing report on October consumer confidence," said Scott Marcouiller of Wells Fargo Advisors.

The market reacted to separate private reports showing a slowing decline in US home prices and a surprisingly sharp drop in consumer confidence.

Investors, who have been evaluating third-quarter earnings of companies which were mostly better than expected, are turning their attention to economic data to capture the momentum of any recovery from recession.

"We believe the shift in focus is turning back to economic reports and away from earnings reports," Marcouiller said.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index on Monday showed home prices in 20 major US cities rose in August for the month in a row and posted the smallest annual drop in 19 months, signaling the housing slump at the center of financial crisis was stabilizing.

The Conference Board, a private research firm, reported consumer confidence fell sharply in October amid growing worries about rising unemployment in the recession-wracked economy.

The board's consumer confidence index declined for the second month in a row, to 47.7 in October from a revised 53.4 in September.

The October index drop was much steeper than expected by Wall Street, with most analysts expecting a 53.5 reading.

Stocks slumped on the fresh consumer confidence data but rose again as computer giant IBM, a Dow component, boosted its share repurchase program by five billion dollars.

The new funding is in addition to 4.2 billion dollars remaining from an earlier stock-buyback authorization.

IBM said it planned to request more stock buyback authorizations in April.

"The announcement not only bodes well for existing shareholders by reducing the number of outstanding shares to bolster earnings per share, but it also provides a sign to the broader market that some companies are now willing to fund activities like buybacks and dividends, rather than stash the cash in their coffers amid economic tumult," analysts at Briefing.com said in a note.

IBM was among gainers, rising 0.45 percent to 120.65 dollars.

Also helping boost the blue-chip Dow were energy heavyweights underpinned by a modest rise in oil prices: ExxonMobil added 2.29 percent at 74.91 dollars and rival Chevron gained 1.51 percent at 76.59 dollars.

By contrast, oil refiner Valero plunged 4.34 percent to 19.39 dollars after announcing third-quarter losses.

In the financial sector, troubled commercial lender CIT Group plunged 10.28 percent to 96 cents. Billionaire US investor Carl Icahn offered to buy the firm's bonds in a bid to thwart the lender's restructuring plan, which he sees as contrary to the interests of debtholders.

The bond market rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond retreated to 3.462 percent from 3.554 percent Monday and that on the 30-year bond fell to 4.289 percent from 4.366 percent. Bond yield and prices move in opposite directions.