Wall Street opens with wild swings

US stock indices opened the second session of this week with heavy volatility, with Dow Jones slumping 2% before pulling back, after the index marked its worst intraday drop in history on Monday, while S&P 500 marked the worst daily performance in seven years. 

NASDAQ reversed higher today on short-covering, with opportunist investors picking up Apple and other cheap tech shares.  

Earlier US data showed the trade deficit widened to $53.1 billion in December from $50.4 billion, while Saint Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said in earlier remarks that the links between labor and inflation have broken down in recent years. 

Bullard, who doesn't have voting privileges in this year's FOMC meetings, warned from interpreting good labor news as leading to direct gains in inflation, noting that the relationship could be close to zero, which comes after the last US payrolls report showed the fastest wage growth in eight years, stoking expectations of higher inflation and faster Fed rate hikes. 

As of 03:21 GMT, Standard and Poor's 500 fell 0.24%, or 6.37 points to 2,642.57, while Dow Jones shed 0.55%, or 134.16 points to 25,211.59. 

Tech-heavy NASDAQ rallied 0.83%, or 58.0 points to 7,025.53.