US and European stock markets have lost ground again as global political and economic uncertainty continues to haunt investors.
Despite their apparent recovery on Wednesday, leading US indexes fell nearly two per cent in early trading, following similar losses in Europe.
Weak US consumer confidence data for December sparked the latest sell-off.
However, analysts cautioned that volatile share price movements were exacerbated by thin holiday trading.
At one point, the Dow Jones index dropped by more than 500 points or 1.8 per cent, while the S&P 500 fell by 48 points or two per cent.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq also sunk by more than two per cent or 135.4 points, with losses led by Tesla and Amazon.
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