Another day of carnage on Wall Street. The Dow average lost 565.
Then, suddenly, U.S. stocks recovered much of an early plunge as speculators started buying up cheap stocks.
The entire market wasn’t so fortunate. The price of oil suffered its worst one-day drop since September.
Energy companies were pummeled as the latest fall in oil threatened more damage to an industry that has been stricken with bankruptcies, layoffs and other cutbacks.
Exxon Mobil fell 4 percent and Chevron fell 3 percent.
Crude fell below $27 a barrel, the lowest price since May 2003 and a far cry from the $100 a barrel it fetched in the summer of 2014.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 249 points, or 1.6 percent, to 15,766. It was down as much as 565 earlier.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
A rapidly shrinking middle class. The majority of new jobs created since 2010 are part-time, low wage, no benefit jobs. Stagnant wages. Now a stock market down so far, it needs to buy a subway token. The only positive thing is that gas and home heating oil are cheap.