Most of the gains were lost in the final hour of trading.
Before that, all major Wall Street indexes were in positive territory but sellers swamped the market.
Kari Firestone, chairman and CEO of Aureus Asset Management, told CNBC's Squawk Box Wednesday that we're trying to find a place of stability. We need to see a few more names come in with strong, reliable and sustainable earnings so investors can get back on board. The Dow Jones industrials ended just 61.75 points, or 0.19 percent, in front of 33,301. The Nasdaq Composite was flat, down 1.81 points or 0.01 percent, at 12,488. The Standard and Poor's 500 added 8.76 points or 0.21 percent to 4,183. The euro fell to 1.0512, a five-year low, after the FX carnage fell to a five-year low on Wednesday.
The euro's blatant inability to rally on hawkish comments by European Central Bank members means lingering vulnerability to an external environment negatively affected by an ever-concerning situation in Ukraine and generalized USD strength, according to ING FX strategists.
The European Union currency unit was hit after Russian energy supplier Gazprom cut gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria because they refused to pay for their supplies with roubles.
The euro bounced back to a 1.0557 close Wednesday after hitting a 2017 low of 1.0512. The British pound fell to 1.2543. The Swiss franc fell to 0.9690.
The Canadian dollar weakened to 1.2823, the Australian dollar continued to crumble, last quoted at 0.7123. The New Zealand dollar was down to 0.6542.
Germany's Dax increased by 0.27 percent on overseas equity markets. The Paris-based CAC 40 was up 0.48 percent. London's FTSE 100 added 0.53 percent.
The Shanghai Composite gained 71.86 points or 2.49 percent to close Wednesday at 2,958. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong increased 11.65 points or 0.06 percent to 19,946. The Australian All Ordinaries fell 65.70 points or 0.86 percent to 7,538. The Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that annual inflation had surged from 3.5 to 5.1 percent.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell by 313.48 points or 1.17 percent to 26,386. New Zealand's S&P NZX 50 declined by 86.79 points or 0.73 percent to 11,726. The Kospi Composite fell 30.14 points or 1.13 percent to 2,638 in Seoul, South Korea.