Hong Kong’s main stock index plummeted as much as 8.5 percent on Wednesday as a sell-off in mainland Chinese shares accelerated despite new measures to support the market; U.S. stocks were poised to open lower.
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The slump was part of a global wave of selling triggered by increased signs of an economic slowdown in China.
The Dow is down 2,156.63 points, or 12.1 percent.
The Dow was 668 points, or 4.1 per cent, lower as of 9:57 a.m. Eastern time.
The Nasdaq composite: down 11.7 percent this month, and down 4.4 percent this year.
The Dow is down 793.31 points, or 4.8 percent.
The S&P 500 index is down 165.69 points, or 8.1 percent.
The uptick followed the decision by China’s central bank to cut its interest rate for the second time in as many months in an effort to ramp up the world’s second largest economy.
Energy company Pepco Holdings declined the most in the S&P 500 on Tuesday after regulators in Washington rejected its proposed merger with Exelon. The China benchmark has lost all of the gains of its meteoric rise earlier in the year, though it is still up 43 percent from a year ago. European markets recovered nearly all their losses from Monday.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index also fell sharply shortly after the opening bell, entering “correction” territory – Wall Street jargon for a drop of 10 percent or more from a recent peak. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares rose 2.6 percent.
In Europe, Germany’s DAX fell 4.7 percent, while the CAC-40 in France slid 5.4 percent. Other Asian markets remained jittery, though the yo-yoing from fresh lows suggested some investors might be venturing back in to snap up bargains. Oil prices fell. But investors also saw opportunity, moving fast and early to snap up some bargains. The loonie took its lead from oil, which stayed below the $40 US level for the third straight trading day.
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U.S. government bond prices fell, pushing up the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to 2.09 percent.
