Dow drops 800 points, Nasdaq craters 3% in global market rout

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Monday as part of a global market sell-off centered around U.S. recession fears. Japan’s Nikkei 225 plunged 12% in its worst day since the 1987 Black Monday crash for Wall Street.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 821 points, or 2.1%. The Nasdaq Composite lost 2.7%, and the S&P 500 slid 2.3%. The blue-chip Dow earlier fell as much as 1200 points.

Fears of a U.S. recession were the main culprit for the global market meltdown after Friday’s disappointing July jobs report. Investors are also concerned that the Federal Reserve is behind in cutting interest rates to bolster an economic slowdown, with the central bank choosing instead to keep rates at the highest in two decades last week.