Markets recover after swinging sharply on trade turmoil

REUTERS/Thomas Peter

President Trump takes part in a welcoming ceremony with China's President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

It was a volatile day for US markets. Indexes swung sharply after China's Ministry of Commerce announced a 25% tariff on $50 billion worth of US exports Wednesday morning. Among the 106 affected products were some of the biggest American exports to China, including aircraft, autos, and soybeans.

Here's the scoreboard:

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 24,264.92 +231.56 (+0.96%)

S&P 500: 2,643.63 +29.18 (+1.12%)

AUD/USD: 0.7715 +0.0031 (+0.40%)

ASX 200 SPI futures: 5,764.0 +21.0 (+0.37%)

1. US stocks climbed back up after getting clobbered Wednesday morning. The Dow Jones industrial average erased a more than 500 point loss, led by gains in shares of Apple and IBM.
2. Still, some aircraft companies didn't completely recover. Boeing - the single largest US exporter to China - shed more than 3% at its lows. It was down 1.50% at 3:39 p.m. ET.
3. Prices of soybeans, which were listed as products affected by Chinese tariffs on the US, also took a hit. They closed at $10.17, down around 2%.
4. Bonds and currencies fluctuated throughout the day as jittery investors threw their money toward safe-havens, but remained relatively calm. US Treasury yields edged up to 2.78%.
5. Major cryptocurrencies fell sharply, with the digital currency market losing more than $7 billion in just a half an hour.
6. Facebook admitted that up to 87 million users could have been affected by an information leak to the data firm Cambridge Analytica. Shares of the company's stock are down 0.65%.

Here is tomorrow's economic calendar:

• Chinese banks will be closed in observance of Tomb Sweeping Day.
• Australia's trade numbers will be released.