Asian shares and US stock futures wobbled in choppy trade as lingering concerns about an fresh spike in coronavirus cases offset growing hopes for a quick economic recovery.

On the whole, markets have been sideswiped this week on fresh contagion concerns, prompting some investors to temper their optimism about how quickly the global economy can recover for the pandemic.

On Thursday around 400 workers at a slaughterhouse in northern Germany tested positive for the virus. At the same time, investors are nervously following a cluster of cases in Beijing and rising cases in several US states.

All three major US stock indexes were range-bound and oscillated through much of the day as investors struggled to interpret the impact of US employment data without any guidance from corporations on their earnings.

Data on Thursday showed the number of US unemployed remains stubbornly high amid signs of a second wave of corporate layoffs as companies grappled with large declines in revenue because of the coronavirus outbreak.

“The market is looking for its next big impulse,” said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana.