than 260 points, gaining more than 1%. asian markets appeared to take it all in stride. the nikkei closed down. the shanghai and hang seng were both up slightly. so clearly there is volatility in play. our alison kosik has more on what to look for down the road. >> reporter: hey there. stocks staged a huge comeback. the dow erased a 611-point decline, closing up 260 points. it is an almost 900-point swing, a day after the dow made history, jumping more than 1,000 points. the trading session was marked by heavy volatility as has been the month of december. the dow has made triple digit moves in 12 of the months' 18 trading sessions. the year-end gyrations come after heavy stock losses in the market overall. the dow was down thousands of points from its october peak. the nasdaq is not far from a bear market. that's a 20% drop from a recent high. year-end positioning is responsible for a lot of the