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Nearly everything on Wall Street is tumbling Monday as fear about a\u00a0slowing<\/a>\u00a0U.S.\u00a0economy<\/a>\u00a0worsens and sets off\u00a0another sell-off<\/a>\u00a0for financial markets around the world.<\/p>\n The S&P 500 was down by 2.4% in midday trading and on track for its worst day since 2022. The Dow<\/a> Jones Industrial Average was reeling by 864 points, or 2.2%, as of 11:40 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq<\/a> composite slid 2.7%.<\/p>\n The drops were just the latest in a global sell-off that began last week. Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 helped start Monday by plunging 12.4% for its worst day since the Black Monday crash of 1987.<\/p>\n It was the first chance for traders in Tokyo to react to Friday\u2019s report showing U.S.\u00a0employers slowed their hiring<\/a>\u00a0last month by much more than economists expected. That was the latest piece of data on the U.S. economy to come in\u00a0weaker than expected<\/a>, and it\u2019s all raised fear the\u00a0Federal Reserve<\/a>\u00a0has pressed the brakes on the U.S. economy by too much for too long through high\u00a0interest rates<\/a>\u00a0in hopes of\u00a0stifling inflation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Professional investors cautioned that some technical factors could be amplifying the action in markets, but the losses were still neck-snapping. South Korea\u2019s Kospi index careened 8.8% lower, stock markets across Europe sank more than 2% and bitcoin dropped below $55,000 from more than $61,000 on Friday.<\/p>\n Even gold, which has a reputation for offering safety during tumultuous times, slipped 1%.<\/p>\n That\u2019s in part because traders began wondering if the damage has been so severe that the Federal Reserve will have to cut interest rates in an emergency meeting, before its next scheduled decision on Sept. 18. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectations for the Fed, briefly sank below 3.70% during the morning from 3.88% late Friday and from 5% in April. It later recovered and pulled back to 3.90%.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Fed could ride in on a white horse to save the day with a big rate cut, but the case for an inter-meeting cut seems flimsy,\u201d said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. \u201cThose are usually reserved for emergencies, like COVID, and an unemployment rate of 4.3% doesn\u2019t really seem like an emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. economy is still growing<\/a>, and a recession is far from a certainty. The Fed has been clear about the tightrope it began walking when it started hiking rates sharply in March 2022: Being too aggressive would choke the economy, but going too soft would give inflation more oxygen and hurt everyone.<\/p>\n Goldman Sachs<\/a> economist David Mericle sees a higher chance of a recession within the next 12 months following Friday\u2019s jobs report. But he still sees only a 25% probability of that, up from 15%, in part \u201cbecause the data look fine overall\u201d and he does not \u201csee major financial imbalances.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of Wall Street\u2019s recent declines may also simply be air coming out of a stock market that romped to dozens of all-time highs this year, in part on a\u00a0frenzy around artificial-intelligence<\/a>\u00a0technology and hopes for coming cuts to interest rates. Critics have been saying for a while that the stock market looked expensive after prices rose faster than corporate profits.<\/p>\n \u201cMarkets tend to move higher like they\u2019re climbing stairs, and they go down like they\u2019re falling out a window,\u201d according to JJ Kinahan, CEO of IG North America. He chalks much of the recent worries to euphoria around AI subsiding and \u201ca market that was ahead of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Professional investors also pointed to the Bank of Japan\u2019s move last week to\u00a0raise its main interest rate from nearly zero<\/a>. Such a move helps boost the value of the Japanese yen, but it could also force traders to scramble out of deals where they borrowed money for virtually no cost in Japan and invested it elsewhere around the world.<\/p>\n U.S. stocks pared their losses Monday after a report said growth for U.S. services businesses was a touch stronger than expected. Growth was led by businesses in the arts, entertainment and recreation businesses, along with accommodations and food services, according to the Institute for Supply Management. Treasury yields also pared their drops following the better-than-expected data.<\/p>\n Still, stocks of companies whose profits are most closely tied to the economy\u2019s strength took sharp losses on the fears about a slowdown. The small companies in the Russell 2000 index dropped 3.7%, further dousing what had been a revival for it and other beaten-down areas of the market.<\/p>\n Making things worse for Wall Street, Big Tech stocks also tumbled as the market\u2019s most popular trade for much of this year continued to unravel. Apple<\/a>, Nvidia<\/a> and a handful of other Big Tech stocks known as the \u201cMagnificent Seven<\/a>\u201d had propelled the S&P 500 to records this year, even as high interest rates weighed down much of the rest of the stock market.<\/p>\n But Big Tech\u2019s momentum turned last month on worries investors had taken their prices too high and expectations for future growth are becoming too difficult to meet. A set of underwhelming profit reports that began with updates from\u00a0Tesla<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Alphabet<\/a>\u00a0added to the pessimism and accelerated the declines.<\/p>\n Apple fell 3.2% Monday after Warren Buffett\u2019s Berkshire Hathaway<\/a> disclosed that it had\u00a0slashed its ownership stake<\/a>\u00a0in the iPhone maker.<\/p>\n Nvidia<\/a>, the chip company that\u2019s become the poster child of Wall Street\u2019s AI bonanza, fell even more, 5%. Analysts cut their profit forecasts over the weekend for the company after a report from The Information said Nvidia\u2019s new AI chip is delayed. The recent selling has trimmed Nvidia\u2019s gain for the year to nearly 106% from 170% in the middle of June.<\/p>\n Because the Magnificent Seven companies are the market\u2019s biggest by market value, the movements for their stocks carry much more weight on the S&P 500 and other indexes.<\/p>\n Worries outside corporate profits, interest rates and the economy are also weighing on the market. The\u00a0Israel-Hamas war<\/a>\u00a0may be worsening, which beyond its human toll could also cause sharp swings for the price of oil. That\u2019s adding to broader worries about potential\u00a0hotspots<\/a>\u00a0around the world, while\u00a0upcoming U.S. elections<\/a>\u00a0could further scramble things.<\/p>\n Wall Street has been concerned about how policies coming out of November could impact markets, but the sharp swings for stock prices could affect the election itself.<\/p>\n The threat of a recession is likely to put Vice President Kamala Harris on the defensive. But slower growth could also further reduce inflation and force former President Donald Trump to pivot from his current focus on higher prices to outlining ways to revive the economy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nRecommended Newsletter: <\/strong>CEO Daily provides key context for the news leaders need to know from across the world of business. Every weekday morning, more than 125,000 readers trust CEO Daily for insights about\u2013and from inside\u2013the C-suite. Subscribe Now<\/a>.<\/div>\n