By Associated Press 19 Mar 2020 14:55

Global stocks remain volatile and are swinging between making gains and losses on Wall Street in early trading today, but the moves are more subdued than the wild jabs that have dominated recent weeks.

The S&P 500 was up 0.6 per cent in morning trading after trimming an earlier loss of 3.3 per cent.

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 per cent.

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 benefitsalso 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.

Meanwhile, central banks in Europe and the United States both also announced their latest efforts to support financial markets and the economy.