Stocks another plunge, Dow Jones drops 364 points

“It’s been pretty ugly so far, year-to-date, and it’s good to see the gains, but we’ll see if they follow through (Friday)”.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow rose 260 points, or 1.6 percent, to 16,413 as of 2:25 p.m. Eastern Time. The Nasdaq composite dropped 37 points, or 0.8 percent, to 4,487.

Earlier, European shares pushed mostly higher on an encouraging improvement in Chinese trade data, and despite another 2.4 per cent fall in Shanghai stocks.

Traders said the mood on many markets was still shaky after an extremely volatile start to 2016, driven by worries over conflict in the Middle East, China’s finances and the fallout from extremely low oil prices.

The drop over the first eight trading days of 2016 represents the worst start to a year in the history of both indexes. About 9.8 billion shares traded hands on United States exchanges, 36 per cent above the three-month average. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 ended down 2.5 per cent, below the key 1900 level.

ENERGY: Falling oil prices are adding to the fears about a global slowdown.

Natural-gas transportation company Williams Cos. soared 34% and was the top performer in the S&P 500. The stock, which had fallen sharply a day earlier, rose $4.68 to $18.29. Freeport-McMoRan also got a boost. Consol Energy slid 65 U.S. cents, or 9.7 per cent, to $US6.05.

Today’s pivot came within 10 points last year’s lows…The pop remains inside that [downward sloping] channel for now, which continues to be the most dominant pattern.

EARNINGS UNDERWHELM: Railroad operator CSX and supermarket chain SuperValu were down after the companies reported their latest quarterly results.

During the regular session, Chipotle was up 6.1 percent at Dollars 454.30 as the company expressed confidence in preventing future food poisoning outbreaks at its chains.

Some companies provided less encouraging updates.

The import price index slid 8.2% in December compared to year ago, following a 9.5% decrease in November. The company estimated a1.5% drop in fourth quarter domestic revenue.

Slowing investment and construction in China, the world’s biggest energy user, is “sending an enormous deflationary impetus through to the world, and that is a significant part of what’s happening in this oil-price collapse”, Turner, former chairman of the U.K. Financial Services Authority, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. It shed $2.68 to $26.58. Economic data, which includes updates on retail sales and the state of NY manufacturing, could also provide cues. Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America also rose.

All told, the Dow lost 364.81 points, or 2.2 percent, to 16,151.41. GoPro lost $2.61 to $12. French media reported that the CGT Renault union revealed raids on multiple sites focusing on engine monitoring that suggested a link to Volkswagen, the German auto giant embroiled in an emissions scandal in the U.S.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.10% from 2.08% on Wednesday.

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