US stocks hit bottom so hard they have started to bounce a long way back.
The Dow Jones was down a mere 111 points at 16,348 in lunchtime trading, having been shed more than a thousand points at one stage, when the panic following the overnight shake-out in Asian markets was at its height.
The Shanghai Composite registered its biggest one-day loss for more than eight years, down 8.5% to 3,210, and markets in Europe quickly followed suit.
By the time US markets opened, you could almost smell the fear but stock prices fell so far and so fast that eventually buyers returned to the market, sniffing out bargains.
The S&P had cut its fall to 18 points at 1,953, having fallen as low as 1,867 this morning, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 20 points at 4,686.
David Madden, a market analyst at spread betting firm, sound less than convinced by the rally, however.
"A small stabilisation in the sell-off should not be confused for confidence, and traders are not trusting the pull-back as it feels like the calm before the next storm. Dealers don’t know what to do with themselves because the market moves are so enormous and erratic, and their levels of fear are outweighing their greed," he suggested.
Be that as it may, consumer electronics giant Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is leading the Dow's fightback, and it up 1.7% at US$107.57, despite confirming the iSight camera may malfunction on some of its iPhone 6 plus smartphones.
The market has also changed its mind on Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), with the shares now up US$2.94 at US$106.90, having been in the red earlier on.
The video streaming firm has signed a content partnership with SoftBank Group (OTCMKTS:SFTBF), a Japanese telecoms and Internet giant, to start its video streaming service in Japan on September 2.
Computer chip behemoth Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) is another tech stock that has reversed early losses, rising 73 cents to US$27.29, after it said it plans to announce its lead role in a US$100 million infusion into Mirantis, the pure play open-source software OpenStack vendor.
The shake-out in equities caused technical glitches at retail-focused stockbroker TD Ameritrade (NYSE:AMTD), with many clients unable to log on to their online accounts to trade.
The broker's shares were off 60 cents at US$32.19.
Rival Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) was having no such problems, but the broker was not feeling too smug, however, as it has been fined US$2mln for capital deficiencies and related supervisory failures by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Schwab's shares were off 36 cents at US$30.57.