Thursday's early trade: Main indexes slip on trade war fears, economic worries

Wall Street's main indexes were lower in choppy trading on Thursday, as renewed worries about Sino-US trade relations added to fears of an extended economic downturn due to the virus outbreak.

"Markets are repricing the risk around economic reopening and the eventual economic normalization. There's an understanding that the timetable may be longer than we initially thought," said Yousef Abbasi, global market strategist at INTL FCStone.

Wall Street's fear gauge, the CBOE volatility index rose for the third straight day, hovering near a 10-day high. The three main stock indexes were headed for a third straight day of losses.

Market participants said a rally in bank stocks helped Wall Street indexes come off intraday lows. Wells Fargo & Co surged 6.1% as it bounced back from 11-year lows. At 11:55 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 55.31 points, or 0.24%, at 23,192.66, the S&P 500 was down 14.69 points, or 0.52%, at 2,805.31. The Nasdaq Composite was down 70.98 points, or 0.80%, at 8,792.19.