Yahoo Finance US stocks skid; Nasdaq down 2.2%
Wall Street stocks dropped sharply in early trade Monday with petroleum-linked shares, banking and technology equities falling hard after another drop in oil prices.
About 25 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 15,927.95, down 277.02 points (1.71 percent).
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 34.89 (1.86 percent) to 1,845.16, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 95. 57 (2.19 percent) to 4.267.89.
The losses in New York came as European bourses suffered even deeper declines, with major indices in Paris and Frankfurt both down more than two percent.
"Investors continue to focus on the prospects for a US recession," Goldman Sachs said in a note released late Sunday.
Amazon dropped 2.0 percent, Facebook 2.8 percent and Tesla Motors 5.5 percent.
Among petroleum-linked stocks, ConocoPhillips fell 2.7 percent, Anadarko Petroleum 5.9 percent and oil-services company Weatherford International 5.5 percent.
Large banks were another group with big losses. Bank of America plunged 4.9 percent, Citigroup 4.3 percent, and Goldman Sachs 3.8 percent.
Toy company Hasbro was a rare winner, advancing 1.9 percent on a 3.4 percent gain in fourth-quarter net income to $175.8 million behind strong sales of toys tied to the "Star Wars" movie franchise. Hasbro also lifted its dividend by 11 percent.
Diamond Offshore Drilling fell 3.8 percent after announcing it would curtail its quarterly dividend in response to the oil rout. The move will save $69 million annually. Diamond reported a fourth-quarter loss of $245 million.
