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•The S&P 500 closed just above its 2018 low Tuesday as stocks struggled to keep a rebound alive throughout the session.

The broad market index finished just above flatline at 2,546.16 after trimming a rally of more than 1 percent and falling into negative territory in afternoon trading at one point. The S&P 500 hit a new intraday low for the year, falling to 2,528.71 before recovering into the close. Market participants pointed to growing fears of a government shutdown, a slide in oil prices and worries that the Federal Reserve is going too far with its rate-hiking plans as reasons for the weak action.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 82.66 points to close at 23,675.64 after erasing its 300-point rally earlier in the session amid a gain in Goldman Sachs, which posted its first positive day in 10 on Tuesday. Shares of Boeing also rose.

New comments out of Washington appeared to spark the afternoon selling after Senate Majority Lead Mitch McConnell said that a proposed government funding plan was rejected by his Democrat colleagues. The Kentucky Republican proposed an appropriations bill that includes money for border security fencing, as well as what a Senate Democratic aide described as a $1 billion “slush fund” that Trump could use on his immigration policies. Democrats subsequently rejected the deal.

A comeback in technology stocks pushed the Nasdaq Composite up 0.4 percent to 6,783.91 as Amazon, Apple and Netflix all traded higher. Facebook stock rallied 2.4 percent while Google-parent Alphabet added 1.7 percent.

•Several major stock indexes are at or nearing bear market territory, adding to mounting fears of slowing global growth.

Over the past few months, investors have retreated from stocks around the globe, pushing the iShares MSCI ACWI ETF — which invests in an index that tracks global markets excluding the U.S. — to its lowest level since May 2017. And, just last week, that group fell into into a bear market, defined as a fall of at least 20 percent from its recent peak.

Growing trade uncertainty, weak economic indicators and a series of domestic political challenges have pushed major stock market indexes in China, South Korea, Turkey, Italy, Germany and Mexico into bear market territory. And more could be on the way as growth fears multiply. Key benchmarks in Spain, France and Russia are all less than 5 percent away from bear market territory.

The escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China pushed the Shanghai Composite Index, one of China’s leading stock indexes, into a bear market in June. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index followed closely behind, breaching that level in September, and South Korea’s KOSPI did so in October.

And, last week, fresh evidence pointed to a further slowdown in China, the world’s second-largest economy. Retail sales grew at the slowest pace in 15years in November, while industrial production expanded at the slowest clip in nearly three years. That data pushed those major Asian market indexes further into bear market territory, and the Shanghai Composite has now lost a quarter of its value since its peak in late January.

• European stocks closed lower Tuesday, amid escalating concerns about a slowing global economy.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed provisionally down 0.82 percent, with most sectors and major bourses in negative territory.

The Stoxx 600 has fallen more than 12 percent year-to-date, dragged lower by heightened fears of a possible slowdown and political uncertainty. The index is also on track for its fourth straight month of declines.