After a wild day on Wall Street Thursday, the market is again making investors’ hearts beat irregularly.

After a steep early-morning slide, the market had once again stabilized but was still down at noon Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 72.47 points (0.69 percent), the Nasdaq composite index was down 27.18 points (1.17 percent) and the Standard and Poor’s 500 was down 8.94 points (0.79 percent).

Of the 26 companies the Business Record actively monitors that are either based in Iowa or have substantial operations in the state, only six were posting gains at noon Friday. Today’s instability follows a frightening Thursday on Wall Street and a dismal day for the Iowa companies, of which only Meta Financial Group Inc., up 0.36 percent, posted a positive day.

Just after 1 p.m. Thursday Iowa time, the Dow Jones industrial average had plummeted nearly 1,000 points (992.60) below the day’s starting point. But by 2 p.m. it had recovered much of what it had lost. The Dow finished the roller-coaster day down 347.8 points (3.2 percent).

The midday 992-point drop of the Dow was the index’s largest intraday point decline in history, according to CNNMoney.com.

Many of the Iowa companies the Business Record actively monitors were far from unscathed Thursday. Among the hardest hit were Sauer-Danfoss Inc., down 7.73 percent, FBL Financial Group Inc., down 7.65 percent, ING Groep NV, down 7.47 percent, Bank of America Corp., down 6.86 percent, HNI Corp., down 5.64 percent and Winnebago Industries Inc., down 5.15 percent.

Other notable Iowa companies with losses Thursday: Deere & Co., down 1.01 percent, Principal Financial Group Inc., down 2.91 percent, and Casey’s General Stores Inc., down 3.02 percent.