Wall Street see-saws up and down as volatility retains grip
Source: AP
By STAN CHOE and DAMIAN J. TROISE
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are see-sawing between gains and losses in midday trading on Wall Street Thursday, but the moves are more subdued than the wild jabs that have dominated recent weeks. At least for now.
The S&P 500 was up 1.5% after bouncing back from a loss of 3.3%. That would be a notable change in normal times, but the index has had eight straight days where it swung up or down between 4.9% and 12%.
Markets have been so volatile because investors are weighing the increasing likelihood of a recession on one hand against huge, emergency efforts by global authorities to support the economy on the other. Markets got more of each on Thursday.
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits jumped by 70,000 last week, more than economists expected, in one of the first signs of layoffs sweeping across the country. Wide swaths of the economy are grinding closer to a standstill, from the travel industry to restaurants, as authorities ask Americans to stay home to slow the spread of the virus. Another weak manufacturing report, this time in the mid-Atlantic region, added to the worries.
A surgical mask is placed on The "Fearless Girl" statue outside the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, March 19, 2020, in New York. Stocks are swinging between gains and losses in early trading on Wall Street Thursday, but the moves are more subdued than the wild jabs that have dominated recent weeks. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen)
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