Turnaround: Buyers step in after U.S. stocks crash early

— -- U.S. stocks opened sharply lower Friday, then turned on a dime, erasing their losses, as traders at the New York Stock Exchange cheered.

The Dow Jones industrials, already down 2,271 points in seven sessions, opened down more than 660 before recovering.

The selling took the Dow briefily below the 8,000 level and the Standard & Poor's 500 index below 900.

The major indexes fluctuated sharply as some computer-driven "buy" orders kick in, but investors sold heavily as markets around the world panic because credit markets remain frozen and pose a threat to the global economy.

On the London Stock Exchange, the FTSE 100 index of leading companies was down 7.03% at midday. In Paris, the CAC-40 was down 7.04%. In Frankfurt, the DAX dropped 8.07%. Despite the heavy drops, many of the foreign indexes were off their lows. The FTSE, for instance, opened 10% lower.

Trading on exchanges in Austria, Iceland, Romania, Ukraine was halted when losses mounted quickly. Russian regulators ordered Moscow exchanges, were trading has been suspended for two days, not to open as scheduled.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 6.8%, putting it on track for its worst week on record.

Frozen credit markets and a loss of confidence in the world's financial system have caused the Dow Jones industrials to drop 21% in just 10 trading days. The blue chip index plunged 678 points Thursday, and is heading to its worst weekly point drop, and one of its biggest weekly percentage drops, since being created 112 years ago.

Going into Friday's session, losses for the year add up to a staggering $8.3 trillion, according to preliminary figures measured by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index, which tracks 5,000 U.S.-based companies representing almost all stocks traded in the U.S.

President Bush is scheduled to make a statement Friday morning about the financial turmoil. But, words are unlikely to stave off another brutal day, with futures pointing to another volatile session.