Stock losses deepen: S&P 500 falls most in eight months

Joe Ciolli

A bad day for US stocks just got a whole lot worse.

After opening in the red and traveling lower in the early hours of trading, the S&P 500 appeared to stabilize in the early afternoon before selling accelerated with abandon. At around 2:30 p.m. ET, the benchmark started another leg down. It's now trading close to session lows, a loss of 1.7%.

The decline in the S&P 500 is now on pace to be the deepest since September 9, two months before the presidential election. The index still has a ways to go today, however, if it wants to rival that 2.5% drop, which came after Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren warned against waiting too long to raise interest rates.

The drop on Wednesday comes amid growing fury in Washington over a report that President Donald Trump sought to end the FBI's investigationinto former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn

Further, market anxiety is being reflected by the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, a barometer of investor nervousness. Until Wednesday, the so-called fear gauge was hovering close to its lowest level on record. Now it has spiked by as much as 37%, also the biggest intraday increase since September 9.

And now, the scoreboard:

  • Dow: 20,675.29, -304.46, (-1.45%)

  • S&P 500: 2,363.21, -37.46 (-1.56%)

  • Nasdaq: 6,036.69, -133.19 (-2.16%)

  • US 10-year yield: 2.22%, -0.11

  • WTI crude: $48.97, +0.31, (+0.64%)

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