By Ed Ballard and Owen Tucker-Smith

Stock indexes were mixed in early trading, as investors await clues about the health of the American economy.

Fears about a recession sparked a selloff Monday, with sliding tech shares spurring the Nasdaq Composite's biggest loss since 2022. President Trump declined to rule out a recession on Sunday and said his economic shake-up would result in a "period of transition."

The market now has the potential for "a substantial relief rally," said Katie Stockton, founder and managing partner of Fairlead strategies.

"It was a really emotionally charged decline," said Stockton, whose firm has emphasized a rotation into the defense sector and out of the technology sector. "The intraday swings have just been massive for the S&P 500, and yesterday seemed to be the worst of it since it all began."

On Tuesday, big tech stocks started to recover some of their losses. Tesla shares rallied, after the EV maker shed 15% of its market value Monday. Broadcom and AMD also rose in morning trading.

In recent trading:

The S&P 500 and Dow industrials stood slightly lower, while the Nasdaq Composite rose modestly. Monday was the S&P 500's worst session of the year.

Wall Street's fear gauge-the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX-stood at a still-elevated level of about 28.

Airline stocks were volatile after Delta, American, JetBlue and Southwest cut their forecasts amid concerns about travel demand.

Treasury yields hovered, having slipped Monday to 4.21%.

The U.S. dollar weakened further against most major currencies. The euro strengthened as conservative leader Friedrich Merz seeks backing for a huge spending plan.

Bitcoin traded at about $81,000, having slipped below $80,000 Monday.

Coming up: Job-openings data for January, due at 10 a.m. ET, will be scoured for any further insight into the state of the economy.

Write to Ed Ballard at ed.ballard@wsj.com and Owen Tucker-Smith at owen.tucker-smith@wsj.com

This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 11, 2025 09:45 ET (13:45 GMT)

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