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Dow sinks 464 points as slowdown fears worsen

NEW YORK — Stocks went into another slide Thursday in what is shaping up as the worst December on Wall Street since the depths of the Great Depression, with prices dragged down by rising fears of a recession somewhere on the horizon.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 464 points, bringing its losses to more than 1,700 since last Friday. The broader S&P 500 index continued its slump, too, and is down 10.6 percent this month alone, with six days of trading to go.

“This is the classic shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later market,” said Scott Wren, senior global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

Stocks usually end the year with a flourish, and December is usually the best month of the year for the market. But this month has been dismal. Without a decent rally, this could be the worst December since 1931.

The S&P 500 is almost 16 percent below the peak it reached in late September. It is on track for its biggest one-month loss since February 2009 and its first losing year in a decade.

Likewise, the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite is down 19.5 percent from the record high it reached in August.

Investors are growing worried that global economic growth is cooling off and that the U.S. could slip into a recession in the next few years.

The market swoon is coming even as the U.S. economy is on track to expand this year at the fastest pace in 13 years. Markets tend to move, however, on what investors anticipate will happen further out.

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