Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 109 points to 12,165, while those for the S&P 500 dropped 14 points to 1,394.

Nasdaq 100 futures fell 31.25 points to 1,734.

Data on the manufacturing sector, which had contracted in the previous month, due out later in the session also kept investors on edge.

Investors on Wednesday found comfort in a partial recovery of the Shanghai stock market, whose 9% slide spooked global markets earlier in the week. Investors also welcomed soothing words from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who said that while there was no single trigger to Tuesday's market slide, financial markets "seem to be working well."

Bernanke also said that the economy may strengthen later this year, that there was no liquidity problem in financial markets, and that troubles from the subprime mortgage markets are not impacting the broader economy. Read more.

Shanghai was back to its losing ways on Thursday, dropping 2.9%, and the Nikkei 225 finished 0.9% lower in Tokyo. Read more.

Europe also turned lower, with the U.K.'s FTSE 100 down 1.1% and Germany's DAX 30 index down 1.6%. Read more.

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Investors found comfort in a partial recovery of the Shanghai stock market, whose 9% slide spooked global markets on Tuesday. Investors also welcomed soothing words from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who said that while there was no single trigger to Tuesday's market slide, financial markets "seem to be working well."

Bernanke also said that the economy may strengthen later this year, that there was no liquidity problem in financial markets, and that troubles from the sub-prime mortgage markets are not impacting the broader economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 52.39 points to 12,268.63, after bouncing in and out of positive territory in early trade. The Dow plunged 416 points on Tuesday. During February, the Dow lost 2.8% of its strength.

Meanwhile, investors bought metal-mining shares and oil shares, even as oil and gold prices fell early Wednesday. The trend helped boost the broad S&P 500 index, which rose 7.78 points to 1,406.82, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 8.27 points to 2,416.13.

"Considering the amount of damage we saw yesterday, how violent and quick the move was everywhere, you tend to get a rebound the next day," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co.

"People are going to try and find where the punishment didn't fit the crime."

Trading volumes, as on Tuesday, were very high with 2.246 billion shares exchanging hands on the New York Stock Exchange and 2.638 billion on the Nasdaq stock market. Rising issues outpaced decliners by 22 to 11 on the NYSE and by 16 to 13 on the Nasdaq.

Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services, described Wednesday's session as "a battle between those who see this as a buying opportunity and those that say yesterday was a warning shot fired over our bow and we should lighten up our positions from here." "How firm will this rebound be? The host of negative catalysts that were there yesterday are still with us: China would still like to wring out excessive investment and the U.S. economy is still moving at a slower pace than we thought," Hogan said.

"All we can say is that yesterday's move was overdone," he said.

News that fourth-quarter economic growth was revised down to 2.2%, instead of the 3.5% previously reported, was broadly within market expectations. The GDP's inflation indicator was also revised lower, but was still higher than the market expected, dampening hopes that the Federal Reserve can cut interest rates should the economy continue to slow.

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