New York - US stocks tumbled in opening trade on Monday as a global equity slump worsened following another big drop in Chinese stocks.
About 15 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 15 916.91 down 542.84 point. The Dow was down more than 1 000 points moments after the open before recovering somewhat.
The broad-based S&P 500 sank 3.18% to 1 908.28, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 3.84% to 4 525.38.
Among Dow members, tech giant Apple was down 4.3%, JPMorgan Chase fell 3.6%, Home Depot lost 4.1% and DuPont sank 6.2%.
The losses in US equities came with other rocky moves in global markets, including a drop in US oil prices below $40 a barrel and a sharp fall in the US dollar against other major currencies.
The main catalyst for the sell-off and retreat from risky assets has been a pullback in Chinese stocks, which has raised worries about the health of the world's second-biggest economy.
On Monday, the Shanghai index plunged 8.49%.
"The fog of fear over the state of the Chinese economy is only thickening, and with little in the way of non-Chinese news to come this Monday, the markets are going to struggle to escape today without some fairly ugly scars," said Connor Campbell, Spreadex financial analyst.