Nearly everything on Wall Street is tumbling Monday as fear about a slowing American economy worsens and sets off another sell-off for financial markets around the world.

The S&P 500 was down by 2.1 percent in midday trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was reeling by 763 points, or 1.9 percent, as of 12:20 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite slid 2.4 percent.

The drops were just the latest in a sell-off that swept the globe. Japan’s Nikkei 225 helped start Monday by plunging 12.4 percent for its worst day since the Black Monday crash of 1987.

It was the first chance for traders in Tokyo to react to Friday’s report showing American employers slowed their hiring last month by much more than economists expected.

That was the latest piece of data on the American economy to come in weaker than expected, and it’s all raised fear the Federal Reserve has pressed the brakes on the economy by too much for too long through high interest rates in hopes of stifling inflation.

Losses elsewhere in the world were nearly as neck-snapping. South Korea’s Kospi index careened 8.8 percent lower, stock markets across Europe sank more than 2 percent and bitcoin dropped 9.5 percent.

Even the dollar value of gold, which has a reputation for offering safety during tumultuous times, slipped 1.4 percent.

That’s in part because traders are wondering if the damage has been so severe that the Federal Reserve will have to cut interest rates in an emergency meeting, before its next scheduled decision on September 18.

The yield on the two-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectations for the Fed, fell to 3.81 percent from 3.88 percent late Friday and from 5 percent in April.

“The Fed could ride in on a white horse to save the day with a big rate cut, but the case for an inter-meeting cut seems flimsy,” said the chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, Brian Jacobsen. “Those are usually reserved for emergencies, like Covid, and an unemployment rate of 4.3 percent doesn’t really seem like an emergency.”

“The Fed could respond by stopping” the shrinking of its holdings of Treasurys and other bonds, he said. “That could at least by a symbolic action that they’re not blind to what’s going on.”

Associated Press