U.S. stock markets face rough morning

NEW YORK

U.S. stock markets sank in morning trading Monday in a wave of fear that circled the globe after a historic plunge in Chinese stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 1,000 points in early trading and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index slid into correction territory — Wall Street jargon for a drop of 10 percent or more from a recent peak.

The major stock indexes pared some of the losses that dented investment accounts by midmorning. Treasurys surged as investors bought less risky assets.

The Dow was down 378 points, or 2.3 percent, to 16,081 points as of 10:59 a.m. Eastern time. The S&P 500 dropped 49 points, or 2.5 percent, to 1,921. The Nasdaq composite fell 111 points, or 2.4 percent, to 4,594 points. The three indexes are down for the year.

Heightened concern about a slowdown in China had already shaken markets around the world on Friday, driving the U.S. stock market sharply lower. A big sell-off in Chinese stocks on Monday caused the rout to continue.

That’s left investors unsure of how to gauge which companies are might be a good bet to weather a slowdown in China.