Stocks plunge, then rebound partially

Wall Street rode another wave of selling Monday that sent U.S. stocks sharply lower, before a late-afternoon pullback stemmed some of the losses.

Investors unloaded materials, financials, and other stocks, briefly knocking the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 400 points.

Technology shares, which soared last year, were targeted for especially aggressive selling, bringing the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index down almost 20 percent from its record high last year.

The losses left major market indexes down for the second day in a row, extending what has been a dismal beginning of 2016 for the stock market, its worst start to a year on record.

The Dow fell 177.92 points, or 1.1 percent, to 16,027.05. The Standard & Poor's 500 lost 26.61 points, or 1.4 percent, to 1,853.44. The Nasdaq composite dropped 79.39 points, or 1.8 percent, to 4,283.75. The index is within 110 points of being in what Wall Street considers a bear market, or a 20 percent drop from its high.

For the year, the Dow is now down 8 percent, while the S&P 500 is down 9.3 percent. The Nasdaq has lost 14.5 percent this year.

The market anxiety helped push bond prices higher, pulling down the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to 1.75 percent from 1.84 percent late Friday, a large move.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell $1.20, or 3.9 percent, to close at $29.69 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, dropped $1.18, or 3.5 percent, to close at $32.88 a barrel in London.

The prolonged slump in oil prices has investors worried that companies that drill for crude may not be able to pay back their loans.

Speculation that Chesapeake Energy might be preparing to file for bankruptcy protection helped push its stock price down 33 percent Monday, making it one of the worst performers in the S&P 500 index. The stock closed down $1.02 to $2.04 in heavy trading.

Financial stocks also slumped, falling 2.6 percent. Given the jitters over a possible global economic slowdown, investors are betting that the Federal Reserve will be less aggressive about raising its key interest rate further this year.

The larger stock markets didn't fare much better.

Germany's DAX fell 3.3 percent, while France's CAC 40 dropped 3.2 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares slid 2.7 percent.

Precious metals prices rose sharply as traders took cover from the turbulence in the stock market.

Gold jumped $40.20, or 3.5 percent, to $1,197.90 an ounce, and silver climbed 64.8 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $15.43 an ounce. Copper, which will often rise and fall along with investors' optimism about the global economy, slipped 1.3 cents to $2.09 a pound.