Queasy investors sent global markets plunging again Wednesday, stomping out recent meager gains and spotlighting fresh worries over cratering oil prices and signs of slowing international growth.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 500 points, dropping 3 percent to 15,500 by 12:30 p.m. EST.
The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index crumbled 3 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 3.2 percent.
U.S. oil prices plunged more than 6 percent Wednesday to about $26 a barrel, their lowest level since 2003, after having plummeted nearly 30 percent since the year began.
Investors say weakening global demand for oil, so vital to construction and manufacturing, could point to a broader underlying danger of slowing global growth.
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday trimmed its projections for global growth for the third time in less than a year, pointing to a recent Beijing report that showed China’s economy grew in 2015 at its slowest rate in more than two decades.
