U.S. stocks closed higher Tuesday, recovering slightly from a sharply lower start to the year and shaking off pressure from an intraday dip in oil below $30 a barrel. In U.S. economic news, the November Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed 5.431 million openings. The November quits rate was 2.0 percent, unchanged from the mildly upwardly revised October rate. In corporate news, Alcoa traded more than 9 percent lower in afternoon trade, after reporting earnings that beat expectations but revenue slightly below forecasts. The dollar traded 0.2 percent higher against major world currencies. Light sweet crude oil for February delivery lost 97 cents to $30.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while gold futures fell $9.60 to $1,086.60 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 28, or 0.15 percent, to 16,423. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index added 2, or 0.10 percent, to 1,925. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index increased 12, or 0.26 percent, to 4,650.
