Investors and traders in the United States continued the global sell-off of stocks on Wednesday as worries about economic growth and the continued slump in oil prices weighed on investors.
Near midday, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 500 points, or about 3.5 percent. The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down nearly 3.6 percent, continuing the steady slide in the markets that have settled in since the beginning of January. The Nasdaq was also down more than 3.5 percent.
The Dow was hit hard after IBM, one of the 30 blue-chip stocks in the gauge, reported a drop in its fourth-quarter profit after the markets closed on Tuesday.
Both the S.&P. and the Dow are off more than 10 percent since the start of the year, and globally, more than $3.6 trillion has been lost this month, said Howard Silverblatt, a senior index analyst at S.&P. Dow Jones Indices.
“That’s money taken out, even if it’s on paper,” Mr. Silverblatt said.
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Traders will be very closely scrutinizing earnings of the S.&P. stocks next week to see how 2016 will go, he added.
“If they don’t come through well, there’s not a lot of support there,” he said.
The S.&P. 500 has slid below the lows it hit in August, when there was volatility in China.
The worldwide drop in stocks signaled nervousness among global investors despite a sanguine reaction earlier in the week to data showing that China’s economic growth continued to slow. Concerns about China’s prospects, as well as the drop in oil prices and signs of weakness elsewhere, have affected global markets in recent months.
Wednesday’s sell-off hit a broad range of investments. European stocks ended sharply lower, with the Euro Stoxx 50 index down 3.3 percent. The FTSE 100 in London end the day down 3.46 percent.
