US stocks endured another volatile week with markets swinging wildly between gains and losses. The index finished the week with modest losses as job market deteriorated further and investors remained worried about gloomy corporate outlooks.

For the week, Dow was down 193.62 points or 2.19%. S&P lost 20.17 points or 2.25%, while Nasdaq Composite settled with a weekly loss of 26.26 points or 1.71%.

The week was witness to a stream of bad news on the front of economy. National Bureau of Economic Research, a private, nonprofit group of economists, said on Monday that U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007. The committee identified December 2007 as the peak month, after determining that the subsequent decline in economic activity was large enough to qualify as a recession.

Institute for Supply Management's data showed both manufacturing and services sector continued to suffer in the month of November. A report by Institute on Monday showed manufacturing activity in United States dropped to 36.2% in November, the lowest reading since May 1982. A release on Wednesday showed non manufacturing activity contracted at a record rate in November. The ISM services index fell 11.2% to 37.3% from 44.4% in October. This is the second straight monthly drop and the lowest reading for this index since record began in 1997.

According to Department of Commerce showed construction spending in US fell 1.2% in October, more than the 1% drop anticipated by Wall Street.
U.S. Census Bureau said on Thursday new orders for manufactured goods fell for the third straight month in October. Factory Orders fell $21.9 billion or 5.1% to $407.4 billion in the month.

Job reports added to the gloom. On Wednesday, ADP survey reported that a total of 250,000 private-sector jobs were lost in November. Consensus estimate was for a drop of 205,000 private sector jobs. A Labor Department release on Friday showed the economy lost 533,000 jobs in November, worse than 325,000 job losses expected by economists. It is the biggest loss since December 1974. The unemployment rate rose to 15 year high of 6.7% in November from 6.5%.

Meanwhile, Central banks around the globe stepped up efforts to arrest the economic slowdown.

On Tuesday, US Federal Reserve announced that it is extending its three key credit program to April 30 from Jan. 30. The Fed said it is extending the term of Primary Dealer Credit Facility, Term Securities Lending Facility and Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility "in light of continuing strains in financial markets."

Reserve Bank of Australia lowered its benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points to a six and a half year low of 4.25%, extending the biggest round of reductions since 1991.

European Central Bank on Thursday cut its key lending rate by 75 basis points to 2.5% from 3.25%.