NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks again see-sawed on Thursday while the U.S. dollar rally took a well-deserved break.

"The main takeaway for investors is to brace for extended volatility," Greg Bassuk, CEO at AXS Investments told CNBC Thursday. "We believe that volatility is going to be the investor narrative for the balance of Q2, and frankly, you know, for the balance of 2022."

From major gains to major losses, and then at the finish, all the indices displayed in the red, albeit modestly.

The hardest hit was the Dow Jones industrials index which declined 236.94 points or 0.75 percent, to close Thursday at 31,253.13.

The Nasdaq Composite slipped 29.66 points or 0.26 percent to 11,388.50.

The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 22.89 points or 0.58 percent to 3,900.79.

On foreign exchange markets, the U.S. dollar was under considerable pressure. The euro rocketed up to 1.0586 around the New York close Thursday. The British pound advanced to 1.2492. The Japanese yen rose to 127.70. The Swiss franc was sharply higher at 0.9717.

The Canadian dollar firmed to 1.2805. There was considerable demand for the Australian dollar, pushing it up to 0.7054. The New Zealand dollar strengthened to 0.6391.

On overseas equity markets, the CAC 40 in Paris, France retreated 1.26 percent. The German Dax was off 0.90 percent. London's FTSE 10-0 declined 1.82 percent.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 shed 508.36 points or 1.89 percent to 26,402.84.

The Australian All Ordinaries slumped 123.30 points or 1.66 percent to 7,303.30.

In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 dipped 51.35 points or 0.46 percent to 11,206.93.

The Kospi Composite in Seoul, South Korea declined 33.64 points or 1.28 percent to 2,592.34.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng fell 523.62 points or 2.54 percent, to close Thursday at 20,120.68.

Going against the trend, China's Shanghai Composite gained 10.99 points or 0.36 percent to 3,096.96.