The Dow Jones industrial average climbed as much as 202.63 points, or 0.8 percent, in early trading but pared the gain to just 12.02 points as of 10:14 a.m. The S&P 500 jumped as much as 0.7 percent before trading roughly flat, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled as much as 0.3 percent.

The choppy start came as Georgia prepared to loosen restrictions on businesses aimed at curbing the deadly coronavirus outbreak, with other Southern states set to follow next week. It also came after the House of Representatives passed a $484 billion stimulus bill Thursday to blunt the economic impact of the pandemic.

All three major indexes gave up gains to close roughly flat Thursday after reports that Gilead Sciences’s antiviral drug remdesivir had flopped in a clinical trial with coronavirus patients in China. News that the drug was showing promise in another study had lifted stocks just a week ago as investors anxiously awaited a COVID-19 treatment.

“The reaction to this setback shows that the stock market rebound could be on shaky grounds,” said Milan Cutkovic, market analyst at AxiCorp.

Stocks had shown signs of recovery in the past two days after plunging earlier in the week. The Dow shed more than 1,200 points Monday and Tuesday amid a historic drop in oil prices that saw one key price turn negative for the first time ever.