Fear continues to rock the U.S. stock market. A 442-point surge for the Dow vanished at the end of the trading session Tuesday, the latest sign of how anxious markets have become about the health of the global economy.

At the end of yet another wild day of trading, the Dow actually ended with a loss of 205 points as fears continued to mount over China's slowing economy and its contagion effect on the rest of the world. Just in the last six trading days, the Dow has lost a total of nearly 1,900 points, or 11%.

"There's still fear around the edges. You need some signs that the market is stabilizing to reassure people it's not going to roll off the edge of a cliff and go tumbling down further," said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist for Key Private Bank.

Some sort of bounce was anticipated on Tuesday due to the enormous losses that have been inflicted on the markets even though the American economy doesn't appear to be falling off a cliff. All three major U.S. equity indexes had plunged into correction territory -- their first 10% decline from recent highs since 2011.

China seemed to provide the recipe for that rebound overnight. China's central bank slashed interest rates, an emergency action aimed at calming financial markets and boosting economic growth by flooding the markets with cheap money.

Investors around the world cheered China's emergency actions in hopes they will at least stabilize conditions in Asia. European stocks surged 4% higher, with Germany's DAX rallying nearly 5% just a day after falling into a bear market.

The significant market moves underscore how much China matters to the global markets. China is the world's second-biggest economy and its explosive growth over the past two decades helped lift many other countries. That's especially true for emerging markets like Brazil that rely on China's huge demand for its natural resources.

That's why the turbulence in China's stock market has unnerved so many investors. The Shanghai Composite plunged another 7.6% on Tuesday in a selloff that occurred prior to the interest rate cut. The bubble in Chinese stocks has burst, leaving the Shanghai index down a whopping 42% since June 12.

Many market veterans believe the damage done by the selloff in the U.S. was overdone considering the American economy doesn't appear to be tanking at this point. Unlike the market turmoil in 2008, the economy isn't on track for a recession.

Watch for more dramatic market moves as new clues emerge about whether the financial turmoil causes the Federal Reserve to delay its plans to raise interest rates in September until later in the year or even 2016. 

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Thousands of people are expected to stream into an events center in Dubuque, Iowa, on the banks of the Mississippi River on Tuesday to see Donald Trump.

When they do, his presidential campaign will be waiting, looking to convert casual gawkers into hardcore supporters who will cast votes for the billionaire presidential candidate in the Iowa caucuses next year.

The Republican front-runner's surging campaign is largely viewed as powered by his personal celebrity and his persistent presence on television.

But there's another political upside to being one of the most famous men in America: You don't have to go knocking door-to-door to find voters. They come to you.

When those voters enter the Grand River Center on Tuesday evening, they will immediately be diverted to tables where Trump's staff will recruit them to be county precinct captains, organizers, and volunteers.

It's a huge competitive advantage in a presidential race in which other Republican candidates at times struggle to attract crowds in the hundreds.

It's another reason, beyond strong poll numbers, that Trump's candidacy is being viewed with increasing seriousness both inside and outside Iowa, which holds one of the earliest nominating contests in 2016.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Chuck Laudner, Trump's top organizer in Iowa, as he walked the event space with Reuters days prior to the event. "He's drawing crowds that most candidates only get in the weeks before the general election."

Laudner talks like a man who, after years of fighting the political wars in Iowa with a cap gun, has been handed a shoulder-fired missile launcher.

In the 2012 election, Laudner drove his pickup truck to every county in the state on behalf of Republican candidate Rick Santorum, who was running a shoestring operation. Santorum ended up pulling off a shocking first-place finish in the caucuses.

Skeptics say Trump will fade once voters turn serious about choosing a president come autumn and doubt he has the patience and fortitude to build a grassroots machine not just here but across the country.

Trump's star power and personal fortune have warped the traditional rules that govern campaigning in the state, upending the retail politics that Iowa is known for. When Trump landed his helicopter earlier this month at the Iowa State Fair, he was mobbed by a crowd in the thousands. Last week, he almost filled a sports stadium in Mobile, Alabama.

"His reach is just so far beyond what the rest of these guys can do combined," Laudner said, referring to Trump's opponents. "It's all new territory."

Recent winners of the Iowa caucuses have been campaigns with large resources and strong organizations, such as George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, or conservatives who appeal to the evangelicals in the state, such as Santorum and Mike Huckabee, who won in 2008.

Trump, like Bush, could have the potential to outspend his rivals here while also appealing to the influential right-wing. His best-funded challenger here, Jeb Bush, is unpopular with those voters.

Trump has 10 paid staff members in the state and most likely will be adding more. One recent innovation has been to send a large tour bus emblazoned with the Trump logo from town to town. It has become its own curiosity, drawing crowds even though just one or two staffers, not Trump, are aboard. The bus even has its own Facebook page.

Trump's campaign hopes to do what has been a long-held goal of politicians in Iowa: bring new voters into the caucus process. Despite the relentless coverage the contest receives here, about only 120,000 Republicans participated in 2012, 20% of the registered Republicans in the state.

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The selling on Wall Street was so dramatic Monday that it triggered unprecedented emergency freezes on stocks.

Stocks and exchange-traded funds were automatically halted more than 1,200 times, according to Nasdaq.

The high level of trading pauses highlights just how extreme the selloff was in a short span of time. Fears about China's economic slowdown caused the Dow to plummet over 1,000 points when the market opened. The Dow ended down 588 points, its worst decline since August 2011.

Installed after the May 2010 flash crash, the so-called circuit breakers are designed to slow down dramatic selling or buying. They are typically triggered when stocks dive or spike by a certain amount in a matter of minutes. Think of it as a time out. Trading is halted for five minutes, giving investors a chance to calm down and allowing cooler heads to step into the market.

Circuit breakers helped prevent a flash crash. Normally there are a few dozen trading halts a day. But Monday wasn't a normal day with 1,200 halts.

"That's huge. I've never seen that many halts," said Dennis Dick, a market structure consultant at Bright Trading.

Dick said he believes the stock market may have suffered even worse losses if it weren't for the trading pauses.

"The circuit breakers are designed to prevent a full-on flash crash. Those circuit breakers kind of saved the day," he said.

But a closer look at the securities that were halted also raises questions. The circuit breakers were implemented more than 600 times on ETFs, the increasingly-popular securities that trade like stocks. ETFs hold a basket of stocks, removing the risk of betting on a single company.

ETF.com examined the pricing action and discovered at least eight ETFs that showed "flash-crash" style drops at the opening of trading.

A number of them are tiny ETFs like the iShares Core Conservative Allocation ETF (AOK) and Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF (EMQQ). In some ways, that may be expected given how smaller ETFs lack liquidity -- the ability to quickly get in and out of a security, even during market turbulence.

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China stocks suffer biggest one-day fall since global financial crisis.

Chinese stocks plunged more than 8 percent on Monday in panic selling, with flagship indexes smashing key support levels and posting their biggest one-day percentage losses since the height of the global financial crisis in 2007.

The latest tumble, which wiped out what was left of market gains this year, was rooted in investor disappointment that Beijing did not announce expected policy support over the weekend after China's main market indexes shed 11 percent last week.

The blue-chip CSI300 index .CSI300 tumbled 8.8 percent, to 3,275.53, while the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC lost 8.5 percent, to 3,209.91 points, putting it back where it began 2015.

"It's difficult to judge whether investors are overreacting, or whether the market is near its bottom," said Alex Kwok, analyst at China Investment Securities in Hong Kong, noting that economic fundamentals remained weak and investor sentiment battered.

"This is already a small-scale stock market disaster. Any rebound, if there is any, could be just technical."

With main indexes falling well below July 9 lows - hit during the height of the recent market rout and widely seen as a key level the government wants to defend - retail investors, many of whom expected monetary loosening policies over the weekend, are disillusioned.

"I regret not having fled the market last week," said a retail investor who identified herself only by her surname, Zhang.

"With the market falling like this, there's no hope at all. It's already a bear market and the government is responsible," she said.

Monday's fall spanned every corner of the market, with small-cap growth stocks and state-owned blue chips declining at roughly equal paces.

At the end of the day, only 16 companies trading in Shanghai and Shenzhen were in positive territory. Over 2,000 stocks, or 80 percent of the total, were down by the 10 percent daily limit, according to Reuters calculations. 

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(Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his troops onto a war footing from 5 p.m on Friday after his government issued an ultimatum to Seoul to halt anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts by Saturday afternoon or face military action.

South Korean Vice Defence Minister Baek Seung-joo said it was likely the North would fire at some of the 11 sites where the loudspeakers are set up on the South's side of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which separates the two countries.

Tension escalated on Thursday when North Korea fired shells into South Korea to protest against the broadcasts. The South responded with a barrage of 29 artillery shells.

Both sides said there were no casualties or damage in their territory, an indication that the rounds were fired as warning shots and not intended to inflict harm.

Neither side wants escalation into war, analysts said.

"The fact that both sides' shells didn't damage anything means they did not want to spread an armed clash. There is always a chance for war but that chance is very, very low," said Yang Moo-jin, professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

Since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, Pyongyang and Seoul have often exchanged threats and dozens of soldiers have been killed, yet the two sides have always pulled back from all out war.

But the renewed hostility is a further blow to South Korean President Park Geun-hye's efforts to improve North-South ties, which have been virtually frozen since the deadly 2010 sinking of a South Korean navy ship, which Seoul blames on Pyongyang.

Park canceled a scheduled event on Friday and made a visit to a military command post, dressed in army camouflage.

The North's shelling came after it had demanded last weekend that South Korea end the broadcasts or face military action - a relatively rare case of following up on its frequent threats against the South.

Its 48-hour ultimatum to halt the broadcasts, delivered in a letter to the South Korean Defence Ministry via a joint military communications channel, was also uncharacteristically specific. The deadline is around 5 p.m. (0400 EDT) on Saturday in Seoul.

Seoul began blasting anti-North Korean propaganda from loudspeakers on the border on Aug. 10, days after landmine explosions wounded two South Korean soldiers along the DMZ, resuming a tactic that both sides had stopped in 2004.

North Korea on Monday began conducting its own broadcasts.

Baek told parliament the South's broadcasts would continue unless the North accepted responsibility and apologized for the mines. Pyongyang has denied it was responsible.

"There is a high possibility that North Korea will attack loudspeaker facilities," Baek said.

In the North, Kim would put his troops on a "fully armed state of war" starting from 5 p.m. and had declared a "quasi-state of war" in frontline areas, Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency reported.

There were indications the North was preparing to fire short-range missiles, the South's Yonhap news agency said, citing an unnamed government source. The North often fires rockets into the sea during annual U.S.-South Korean military exercises, which are currently under way.

Pyongyang's declaration of a semi-state of war was its first use of such terminology since the North shelled a South Korean island in 2010, Yonhap said. Two South Korean marines and two civilians were killed in that incident, which followed another ultimatum delivered by the North.

The precise nature of the latest ultimatum was a bit unusual, said John Delury, a North Korea expert at Yonsei University in Seoul.

"North Korea is a constant font of generalized threats, but putting a time stamp on it is a little bit different. It puts both Seoul and Pyongyang's necks on the chopping board. Someone has to blink here," he said.

South Korea's won currency KRW= and shares .KS11 fell as the heightened tensions added volatility to markets already hit by concerns about the global economy.

The U.S. military, which has 28,500 personnel based in South Korea, said it was closely monitoring the situation.

Washington earlier urged Pyongyang to halt any "provocative" actions in the wake of Thursday's exchange of fire, the first between the two Koreas since last October.

Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group think tank said the large U.S. troop presence in the South for the military exercises could reduce the risk of escalation.

"This is a bad time to pick a fight with the South while it has all these resources there," he said.

Fishing was suspended around three South Korean islands off the west coast. Most of the nearly 800 South Koreans ordered to leave their dwellings near the border on Thursday had returned, although one village remained evacuated, local officials said.

Morten Traavik, a Norwegian who organized a two-show visit to Pyongyang by Slovenian avant-garde rock band Laibach, said people were going about their business as usual in the North Korean capital.

"There have of course been news bulletins on North Korean television announcing the North Korean military's pretty bombastic statements," Traavik said by phone.

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China's beleaguered stock market endured yet another sell off on Friday, shedding 4% to wipe away the remaining gains from a dramatic market rescue launched by Beijing in early July.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite closed just north of 3,500 points, a level that many analysts believe Beijing will try to defend at all costs. Even with a late rush of buying, the index closed down more than 11% for the week.

Many companies listed in Shanghai, including some large state-owned firms, fell by the maximum daily limit of 10%. The smaller Shenzhen Composite index shed 5.4% on Friday, taking losses for the week to 11.5%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index, which has fared better than mainland China markets, also slipped into a bear market on Friday, closing more than 20% below its recent high in late April.

The rough trading day extends a wild period in Chinese markets.

The first signs of trouble came in June, after the Shanghai Composite peaked at more than 5,100 points, a gain of roughly 150% over the previous 12 months. When the bubble burst, the index lost 32% of its value in just 18 trading sessions, reaching a low of 3,507 points on July 8.

Beijing reacted forcefully. The central bank cut interest rates to a record low, regulators suspended new market listings, and threatened to throw short sellers in jail.

The country's market regulator organized the purchase of shares using cash supplied by the central bank. Companies were allowed to suspend their own shares -- at one point 50% of all listed stocks were frozen.

Analysts have maintained that market volatility would have a limited impact on China's economy. Relatively few Chinese are invested in the stock market, and the vast majority of Chinese companies still have access to financing.

Concerns are mounting, however, especially over China's currency and the strength of the country's factory sector. On Friday, a key gauge of manufacturing activity tumbled to its lowest level in 77 months. And there are signs of slowing consumer demand.

Beijing has also allowed the yuan to devalue in recent weeks, a move that some think was designed to boost the country's exporters. If other countries choose to also devalue their currencies in an attempt to keep their exporters competitive, the retaliatory actions could spark a currency war Asia.

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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will submit his resignation to the country's president later Thursday to clear the way for early elections on Sept. 20, a government official said.

Tspiras, elected in January, is expected to make a televised state address on Thursday evening.

Tsipras effectively lost his parliamentary majority after a rebellion by hardliners in his Syriza party who oppose a bailout agreement struck with international lenders.

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Reuters - South Korea fires rounds at North in response to shell.

South Korea said it fired tens of artillery rounds toward North Korea on Thursday after the North launched a shell toward a South Korean loudspeaker that had been blaring anti-Pyongyang broadcasts, as tension escalated on the peninsula.

North Korea did not return fire but later warned Seoul in a letter that it would take military action if the South did not remove the loudspeakers within 48 hours, the South's defense ministry said.

In the letter, North Korea's armed forces called the South's propaganda broadcasts a "major challenge" to the North.

South Korea said its detection equipment had spotted the trajectory of a suspected North Korean projectile launched at around 3:52 p.m. (0652 GMT), which did not appear to have damaged the loudspeaker or caused any injuries.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye told top defense officials to "react firmly" to North Korean provocations, a spokesman quoted her as saying. South Korea's military raised its alert status to the highest level.

"Our military has stepped up monitoring and is closely watching North Korean military movements," South Korea's defense ministry said.

There was no mention of the firing in North Korean state media, which does not typically make immediate comment on events.

The suspected North Korean shell landed in an area about 60 km (35 miles) north of Seoul in the western part of the border zone, the defense ministry said. South Korean residents in the area were ordered to evacuate, according to the South's Yonhap news agency.

The projectile appeared to have landed in a mountainous area near a South Korean military base in the town of Yeoncheon, Yonhap said.

The exchange of fire was the first between the two Koreas since last October, when North Korean soldiers approached the military border and did not retreat after the South fired warning shots, the South Korean Defense Ministry said at the time. The North's soldiers fired back in an exchange of gunfire that lasted about 10 minutes, with no casualties.

Tension between the two Koreas has risen since early this month when landmine explosions in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of the border wounded two South Korean soldiers. Seoul accused North Korea of laying the mines, which Pyongyang has denied.

Seoul then began blasting anti-North Korean propaganda from loudspeakers on the border, resuming a tactic that both sides had halted in 2004.

North Korea on Saturday demanded that the South stop the broadcasts or face military action, and on Monday began conducting its own broadcasts.

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Apple and Google are going to go to war over self-driving cars

Hidden within the comparisons between tech giants Apple and Google, lies a rather inconvenient fact -- the two companies have distinct (and mostly differing) business models. For Google, its core business is search, while Apple sells premium hardware integrated with software.

Even where the two do directly compete, their strategies are different. For smartphone operating systems, Google has taken a mostly open source model to accelerate adoption, opting to monetize user data, mobile search, and transactions through its Google Play Store. For Apple, its highly integrated, "walled-garden" operating system pairs with its hardware and software in order to sell more high-margin devices.

However, more recently the rumor mill has decidedly pointed to a new product where Cupertino and Mountain View are aiming to compete: an autonomous car. If the rumors are correct, the battle to reinvent the driving experience may be even more fierce than the smartphone wars.

Apple's further along than many thought

According to correspondence obtained by Britain's The Guardian, Apple is building an autonomous car and is currently in the process of finding locations in San Francisco for testing purposes. There are a few big surprises in this article -- the first of which is the fact Apple's car is self-driving. Earlier this year, a self-driving car rumor was leaked by Reuters, only to be disputed by The Wall Street Journal, which reported the vehicle would be a conventional car.

The second, and perhaps more interesting, is Apple's pacing in regards to bringing a self-driving car to potential market. According to the article, engineers from Apple's "Project Titan" met with officials from GoMentum Station, a secretive defunct naval base that has found a new usage as a testing ground for self-driving vehicles.

It is also interesting to note this seems slightly out of step with Apple's high-margin strategy, as cars are notoriously low-margin, but it seems the company is aiming to compete with one of Google's "moon shots."

The question, of course, is how important first-mover advantage would be in this market. Unlike a smartphone or another consumer-electronics gadget, the consequences of releasing a flawed self-driving vehicle are inherently more dangerous and should be tested extensively to mitigate any issues. It is for that reason, why I expect a longer testing period before the technology is available and may require legislative approval before being bought to market.

In the beginning, and if both are able to bring a self-driving car to market, I expect fierce competition between the two companies as they seek to compete for early adopters. However, as this technology becomes more widely accepted, the potential losers are entrenched automotive manufacturers that haven't developed competing technologies and professional drivers whose jobs could be automated.

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