Updated at 21.52

GLOBAL MARKETS HAD another volatile day today as investors continued to worry about the health of European banks and the state of the US economy.

US stocks have taken a dive since opening as poor economic data and jobs figures released today did nothing to allay fears of another recession. After a morning of ups-and-downs, the markets turned and closed lower.

The Wall Street Journal reported a volatile session on Wall Street with the Dow Jones swinging from highs to lows. The declines have been attributed to Hewlett-Packard, which has seen the day’s heaviest losses so far. The tech giant’s shares took a dive to hit a six-year low on news that it is exiting the tablet and smartphone markets.

Some of the index’s losses were offset by gains for McDonald’s and Wal-Mart.

The Dow Jones lost almost 173 points, or 1.57 per cent, to close at 10,817.65.

Signalling a fourth week of losses on Wall Street, the Nasdaq dropped 39 points to 2,341, while the S&P500 fell by about 17 points to 1,123.

The biggest worry for global investors is that problems at European banks could spill over and have a negative impact on their US counterparts.

There was also some bad news on the jobs front in the US, which continues to see stubbornly high rates of unemployment. Weekly jobless claims were up again, according to the latest data released today.

Earlier today, Dublin’s ISEQ closed at 2,419.77, down 34.87 point, while London’s FTSE100 also extended its losses by more than 1 per cent, or 51.47 points, to 5,040.76.

Meanwhile, gold continues its bull run as investors turn to the precious metal as a safe haven for their money. Breaking records again, spot gold hit $1,877 an ounce. Reuters reports that the metal is still on course for its biggest one-month rise in about 12 years.

Read: European markets have worst trading day in two years >