Dow sinks another 500 points as slowdown fears worsen

NEW YORK (AP) — Stock prices are tumbling again today as a series of big December plunges has stocks on track for their worst month in a decade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 500 points, bringing its losses since Friday to more than 1,800 points.

The benchmark S&P 500 index fell 2.3 percent. It has slumped 11 percent this month and is now 16 percent below the peak it reached in late September. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite did even worse, and is now down 20 percent from its record high in August.

After steady gains through the spring and summer, stocks have nosedived in the fall as investors worry that global economic growth is cooling off and that the U.S. could slip into a recession in the next few years. Oil prices fell sharply again.

The market swoon is coming even as the U.S. economy is on track to expand this year at the fastest pace in more than a decade. Markets tend to move, however, on what investors anticipate will happen well into the future, so it's not uncommon for stocks to sink even when the economy is humming along.

Right now, markets are concerned about the potential for a slowing economy and two threats that could make the situation worse: the ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and China, which has lasted most of this year and shows few signs of easing, and rising interest rates, which act as a brake on economic growth by making it more expensive for businesses and individuals to borrow money.

The selling in the last two days came after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the fourth time this year and signaled it was likely to continue raising rates next year, although at a slower rate than it previously forecast.