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Markets calmed Thursday, opening broadly higher in New York. Markets regained their losses Thursday, after falling nearly 2% on Wednesday as Japan’s nuclear crisis and protests in the Middle East heated up fears over the safety in equity investments. Oil added to its gains Thursday, rising 2% to $99.99 a barrel.

Concerns over the deteriorating condition of Japan's stricken nuclear reactors, and the effect on global economies, sparked the Dow's biggest selloff since August and left the S&P 500 in the red for 2011.

Stocks plunged Tuesday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down almost 300 points at the opening, as the nuclear crisis in Japan intensified following a deadly earthquake and tsunami....

Japan's central bank injected a record 7 trillion yen ($85.5 billion) into money markets and the Tokyo stock market nosedived Monday on the first business day since an earthquake and tsunami devastated the country's northeast and raised dire worries about the economy.

After seeing oil prices skyrocket from days of turmoil in Libya, investors now must grapple with political protests in the world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, and the impact of Japan's biggest earthquake on record.

Stocks tumbled Thursday, hit first by new worries about global growth and then by reports that Saudi police had fired on protesters.

Upbeat economic data, and slipping oil prices, sparked a broad rally Thursday, lifting the blue chips to their biggest percent gain since December. 

Stocks fell sharply and oil prices spiked to their highest level in two years on Tuesday as investors worried about the increasingly violent unrest in Libya.

U.S. regulators should stem the growing tide of anonymous stock-trading and consider charging high-frequency traders fees for the disproportionate amount of orders they send into the marketplace, said a panel of experts advising how to avoid another "flash crash."

NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Borse agreed on Tuesday to a $10 billion all-stock merger, bringing together two stock exchanges into a trans-Atlantic powerhouse.