The worry is that the whipsaw moves will either hurt the economy directly or create enough uncertainty to drive U.S. companies and consumers into an economy-freezing paralysis.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street got some relief after an encouraging report said inflation slowed last month by more than expected, and stocks scraped back some of their sharp losses from recent weeks. The S&P 500 was 1% higher in early trading Wednesday, a day after it briefly fell more than 10% below its all-time high set last month.

Wall Street ended sharply lower on Thursday and the S&P 500 confirmed it is in a correction after cool inflation data was overshadowed by fears that the escalating tariff war being waged by the United States against some of its biggest trading partners could reignite inflation and tip the economy into recession.