NEW YORK (AP) - It was a rough start to October for financial markets Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average dropping more than 200 points as investors reacted to a round of negative economic news in the U.S. and abroad.
At first stocks were driven lower by word that German manufacturing had slowed last month. The selling accelerated after a separate survey indicated U.S. manufacturing slowed as well.
"A lot of people thought this economic data was going to be robust, so when it was weak, everyone moved to reposition," said Tom di Galoma, head of rates and credit trading at ED&F Man Capital.
Investors were also selling stocks following news that the first case of Ebola had been diagnosed in the U.S. Investors dumped airline stocks and bought a handful of drug companies working on experimental Ebola treatments.
The blue chip Dow index lost 238.19 points, or 1.4 percent, to 16,804.71. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 26.13 points, or 1.3 percent, to 1,946.16 and the Nasdaq composite lost 71.30 points, or 1.6 percent, to 4,422.09.
The report that set off most of the selling in the U.S. was the Institute for Supply Management's monthly manufacturing survey, one of the more closely watched economic indicators that investors look for each month. The ISM index came in at 56.6, below the 58.5 economists expected.