A Wall Street sign in front of the New York Stock Exchange. (Photo: AP)

Stocks turned lower Friday, giving up an early rally, after New York became the latest major state to mandate nearly all workers stay home to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The action taken by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, coming just a day after California announced similar measures, is another sign that large swaths of the US economy are coming to a standstill as restaurants, retailers and other businesses dependent on consumer traffic are forced to close doors and furlough or lay off workers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average erased an early gain of 444 points and was down 200 points points, or 1%, in early afternoon trading.

The losses wiped out the index’s gains from a day earlier and deepened the market’s losses in what’s been another brutal week on Wall Street. The Dow is down 14% for the week.

Investors are weighing the likelihood that the global economy is entering a recession because of the massive shutdowns and layoffs caused by the outbreak against steps by central banks and governments to ease the economic pain.

Ultimately, investors say they need to see the number of new infections stop accelerating for the market’s volatile skid to ease.

“We just don’t know what the next two weeks will bring,” said Paul Christopher, global market strategist at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “Are we going to follow the same infection curve as other countries and the number infections will drastically accelerate? That’s when the storm is going to come.”

The S&P 500, the benchmark for many index funds held in retirement accounts and the measure preferred by professional investors, was down 1% after being up 1.8% earlier. The index is down 28% since reaching a record high a month ago. It’s close to its lowest point since late 2018.

Investors continued to seek safety in US government bonds, driving their yields broadly lower. The 10-year Treasury yield, which influences interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans, slid to 0.94% from 1.12% late Thursday.

In energy markets, benchmark US crude slid 6.3% to $23.63 per barrel. The price of gold rose 0.4%.

The downbeat start for the US indexes followed solid gains across markets in Europe. Stock markets in Asia closed higher.

Despite the latest bout of selling, hopes remain that there will be progress in finding virus treatments and that “a boatload of stimulus by both central banks and governments will put the global economy in position for a U-shaped recovery,” said Edward Moya of Oanda in a report.

Members of President Donald Trump’s economic team were convening Friday on Capitol Hill to launch negotiations with Senate Republicans and Democrats racing to draft a $1 trillion-plus economic rescue package amid the coronavirus outbreak.

“We hope to see the Congress act on that early next week,” Vice President Mike Pence said during an afternoon press conference.

The rescue package is the biggest effort yet to shore up households and the US economy as the pandemic and its nationwide shutdown hurtles the country toward a likely recession.

Even with the market’s broad slide, airlines, hotels and cruise line operators climbed as Congress worked on the economic stimulus bill that would include billions to bail out those industries. United Airlines surged 17.4% and MGM Resorts International jumped 22.7%. Carnival rose 13.7%. Despite the big gains, the stocks are still down sharply for the year.