Beaten-down Wall Street slammed by recession fears

Rising fears of another recession hammered US stocks on Thursday, sending major averages sharply lower in a return to the extreme fluctuations investors endured a week ago.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 419.63 points, or 3.68 percent, to 10,990.58, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 53.24 points, or 4.46 percent, to 1,140.65, and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 131.05 points, or 5.22 percent, to 2,380.43.

European equities suffered their biggest daily fall in two and a half years, as a slew of downbeat US data cast further doubt on the strength of the recovery in the world's biggest economy.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares fell 4.8 percent to 925.19 points, the biggest fall since March 2009. Trading volume was more than 24 percent higher than the index's average for the last 90 days.

European shares extended falls and hit a new low for the day , after initial US weekly jobless claims came in above forecast, casting further doubt on the strength of the recovery in the world's biggest economy. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 3 percent at 943.14 points, and had hit a new low for the day of 941.22 shortly after the data.

Japan's Nikkei stock average fell for a second straight day and dropped below the closely watched 9,000 line, hurt by the yen's persistent strength and fears the United States might be heading for another recession, with many investors on the sidelines ahead of US economic data.

The benchmark Nikkei fell 1.3 percent to 8,943.76, slipping further from a one-week intraday high of 9,150.31 hit on Tuesday.