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Stocks resumed their downward slide in early trading Wednesday as investors retreated from the initial optimism that greeted the Federal Reserve's decision the day before to keep interest rates low.

AOL had a record decline in New York trading after reducing its annual earnings forecast, raising concerns that the company may not be able to turn itself around following the 2009 spinoff from Time Warner. AOL fell $3.88, or 26 percent, to close at $11.19 in New York Stock Exchange trading, the biggest drop and the lowest level since the spinoff. Earlier, the slump prompted a so-called circuit breaker that temporarily halted trading.

Standard & Poor's, whose unprecedented downgrade of U.S. debt triggered a worldwide stocks sell-off, is pushing back against a U.S. government proposal that would require credit raters to disclose "significant errors" in how they calculate their ratings.

The Fed spoke - and financial markets rallied. The Dow Jones industrial average surged more than 429 points, its tenth highest point gain in history and the biggest since March 2009. It was just one day after the Dow had its worst point decline since 2008.

Apple Inc briefly edged past oil major Exxon Mobil to become the most valuable company in the United States after days of volatile stock market action.

The sell-off comes in reaction to the downgrade on U.S. debt by Standard & Poor's. Accelerating fears of a new global recession sent the Dow Jones industrial average plunging more than 600 points as Washington policymakers scrambled to contain the damage fueled by reaction to the U.S. credit rating downgrade.

The Federal Reserve may take steps Tuesday to try to boost investor confidence, Bloomberg News reports.

Wall Street stocks plummeted Monday morning on the first-ever downgrade of the United States' credit rating, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging as much as 380 points in the first hour of trading.

The price of gold streaked past $1,700 an ounce for the first time Monday. Investors, beset by worries about the U.S. debt downgrade, Europe's financial crisis and slowing global growth, sought safety in the metal as stocks tumbled around the world.

Finance officials from major industrial countries, seeking to calm nervous global markets, pledged Sunday to increase cooperation on attacking economic problems.