Recession fears: Wall Street tumbles, Dow drops 344 points

NEW YORK: Taking cues from slump in overseas markets, US stocks plummeted in early trade today with benchmark Dow index crashing over 344 points.
Spooked by concerns about deteriorating global economic health, risk-averse American stock investors continued with their selling spree for the second straight trading session.
Apart from Dow Jones Industrial Average, the broader S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite too slumped.
Dow plunged over three per cent or 344 points to 10,780.33 points, while S&P 500 shed nearly 3 per cent to 1,132.16 points. Further, Nasdaq Composite tumbled 3 per cent to trade at 2,461.30 points.
Dashing investor optimism, US Federal Reserve on Wednesday said there are "significant downside risks to the economic outlook" and its new plan to buy USD 400 billion worth long-term bonds failed to sooth anxious investors.
The Fed's latest reading, also implied that US economic conditions could remain shaky for a longer time to come.
After a bloodbath on Asian bourses that saw stocks nosediving as much as five per cent, European shares were also wobbling in late afternoon trade.
London Stock Exchange's benchmark FTSE 100 slid 4.70 per cent to 5,039.85 points. Two other major European indices -- Germany's Dax and France's Cac 40 -- too were deep in the red.