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Stocks struggled to regain some ground before falling into negative territory today as federal regulators moved to inject money -- and confidence -- back into a nervous market and keep the credit crisis from worsening.

The Federal Reserve and other major foreign central banks injected up to $180 billion into global money markets early this morning. In the coordinated action, announced at 3 a.m. Eastern time, the U.S. Federal Reserve provided additional dollars to financial centers around the world, including $110 billion for European banks, $60 billion for the Bank of Japan and $10 billion for the Bank of Canada. The move more than doubles the "swap line" -- essentially a short-term exchange of currencies -- available to the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank, and provides new lines to central banks in England, Canada and Japan.

money available through short-term loans to banks and financial firms that have, given the turmoil of recent days, become hesitant to lend to one another. Short-term loans among financial institutions are critical to the world financial system, but in the current environment banks have hoarded cash and demanded far higher than usual interest rates for that sort of lending.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York later made a separate, unscheduled infusion of $50 billion into the U.S. financial system.

Yet, despite the infusion, the stock markets vacillated between positive and negative territory during the day. The Dow Jones industrial average spiked by more than 160 points in the morning, then quickly fell shortly after noon to a loss of 126 points. That didn't last long, however, and by 1:15 it was flitting up and down slightly from the break-even point. About 30 minutes later it was up more than 100 points.

The frenzied restructuring of the financial market is also continuing as banks look for security. U.K. bank Lloyds TSB is acquiring mortgage lender HBOS for $22 billion, creating the country's largest mortgage lender. Constellation Energy Group, parent of Maryland's biggest utility, is being purchased by MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, for $4.7 billion in a cash-and-stock deal.

The panic in credit markets made for tough sledding for the two remaining independent investment banks, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which fund themselves with short-term borrowing.

There were also reports today that Morgan Stanley had entered preliminary merger talks with Wachovia Corp. and other banks and that Washington Mutual is attempting to raise capital or sell itself. Morgan Stanley, along with Goldman Sachs, is one of the two remaining investment banks, following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers earlier this week. It has been fighting questions about its stability and fell 20 percent in trading during the lunch hour. Washington Mutual had gained 15 percent at midday.

Lehman's "collapse seems to have ushered in the long-awaited wave of industry consolidation," said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist for PNC Wealth Management. "Now you see what's going on with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Even though they are the strongest left, the market has them in their cross hairs."

Buyout offers that these firms would have shrugged off weeks ago now appear to be under consideration, said Stone. "I think we're in just uncharted territory. They are doing what they can, but it's not making people comfortable."

Investors continued to rush to safer ground. The price of gold jumped another $27 today, while a barrel of oil rose again, to more than $100 a barrel, before falling slightly to $97.

In economic news, the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose 10,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis to 455,000 in the week that ended Sept. 13, according to the Labor Department. "The data suggest that labor market conditions continue to deteriorate and the rate of unemployment should remain elevated," said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist for Merck Investments, said in a research note today. "Given the current credit panic, large expected layoffs in the financial industry and the expected layoffs associated with this portion of the business cycle, we expect the rate of unemployment to continue climbing."