Volatile market falls, then recovers

U.S. stocks clawed most of their way back from a deep slide Thursday that at one point had wiped out the market’s gains for the year.

An early plunge briefly knocked more than 700 points off the Dow Jones Industrial Average as the arrest of a senior Chinese technology executive threatened to cause another flareup in tensions between Washington and Beijing.

The sell-off eased by late afternoon, however, after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Federal Reserve is considering breaking with its current approach of steady interest rate hikes, favoring a wait-and-see approach.

Volatility has gripped the market since early October. Investors have worried that the Fed might overshoot with its campaign of rate increases and put the brakes on the U.S. economy. Likewise, traders fear that a prolonged trade dispute between the U.S. and China could slow the global economy and crimp corporate profits. The market’s mood can quickly swing depending on what it hears on either of those issues.

Oil prices fell sharply as traders appeared to doubt that an expected production cut by OPEC will be enough to boost the price of crude. Mortgage rates The national averages for mortgage rates for the week that ended Thursday:

30-YEAR, FIXED RATE Recent week...................4.75% Previous week................4.81% A year ago.......................3.94% 15-YEAR, FIXED RATE Recent week...................4.21% Previous week................4.25% A year ago.......................3.36%