Stocks close lower on last day of rocky Q1

Wall Street was relatively calm on the final day of what has been a wild, rocky ride for U.S. stocks, which have rallied back into positive territory after its worst start to a year ever.

Back in mid-February, it was all doom and gloom on Wall Street, with all of the major U.S. stock indexes down more than 10% for the year and off 15% from 2015's record highs.

But once fears of a U.S. recession faded, the Federal Reserve dialed back its outlook for interest rate hikes and oil rebounded sharply from 13-year lows, the stock market roared back.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed the last day of the quarter down 32 points, or 0.2%, at 17,685. But for the month, the blue-chip index jumped 7.1%, which helped lift the Dow back into the black for the year and post a 1.5% gain for the first quarter.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index jumped 6.6% in March and was up 0.8% for the year. On the last day of the quarter, the S&P 4 points, or 0.2%, to 2060.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index also came back from steep losses earlier in the year but still remains down for the year. The Nasdaq rose 6.8% in March but remains down 2.7% for the year.

Best March since 2009 puts S&P 500 back in black

U.S. stocks are riding a two-day rally following comments from Fed Chair Janet Yellen on Tuesday that reiterated that the nation's central bank is in no hurry to continue its interest rate hike program.

At the height of the stock market correction at the Feb. 11 lows, both the Dow and S&P 500 closed down more than 14% from their May record highs. Losses for the Nasdaq and small-company Russell 2000 index were down 18% and 26%, respectively.