Volatile Dow Jones spooked by eurozone debt

As the chaotic ups and down on the world’s stock markets continue, New York's Dow Jones has now seen four 400-point swings in a row. This has never happened before.

Reuters/Lucas Jackson

Even the experts don’t really know what to make of this week of toing and froing on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up again, emphatically, on Thursday.
This is what you call a volatile market, traders are reacting quickly, nervously to any little piece of economic news.

There is no clear answer at the moment to the question, “Where is the US economy heading?”

Any indication leads to a buying spree or a big sell-off, depending on whether data suggest a recovery is happening or a double-dip recession is on its way.

Wall Street hasn’t seen such wild changes since the financial crisis in 2008.

The Dow Jones index closed up 3.9 per cent helped on its way by a fall in the number of people registering for unemployment benefits last week.

The European and US markets are essentially feeding off each other, each reacting to the other’s troubles, and each fearing the same thing, the global downturn.