U.S. Markets Close Higher, Despite Losing Early Gains

While the markets posted decent gains Thursday, the major indices closed well off their morning highs. At one point, the Dow rallied as much as 249 points. The Dow closed up just 33.2 points, while the S&P 500 closed higher by just 4.6 points. Both the Dow and the S&P 500 remain in the red for the year.

As the stock market rebounded from 4-month lows Thursday, a few consumer stocks hit lifetime highs, including Footlocker, NVR, Red Robin and Walt Disney.

With the markets losing early gains, the Vix spiked into the close, touching 20 for the first time since February 2.

Breaking news just after 4 p.m. ET: Greece submitted a proposal to the Eurogroup, who will look it over, and will be decided upon by the leaders of the EU. Greece owes more than 230 billion euros to the troika. They've missed a major payment due to the IMF. Another is owed to the ECB by July 20.

China's imploding stock market and the Iran nuclear deal are still a focus in the headlines.