A rough start to 2016 got worse on Friday.
U.S stocks dropped sharply just minutes into trading, pushed down by concern about the global economic outlook as well as struggles closer to home.
The Dow Jones Industrial average shed more than 500 points only halfway through the trading day.
The Nasdaq tech index and the broader S&P 500 were down 4.1% and 3.3% respectively.
[seealso slug=http://sale-online.click/2016/01/09/china-stock-market-you/%5D%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EThose drops add to a series of recent declines that have caused broad concern about the year ahead. All three major indexes are down at least 9% in the past month.
Friday's market drop was preceded by plenty of bad news. China has been enduring its own far more severe market decline that continued to affect the rest of Asia's markets.
A 3.6% drop by the Shanghai Composite Index -- China's main stock index -- put the market squarely in "bear" territory, which is a period of declines marked by widespread pessimism that is informally linked to an overall decline of 20%.
Concerns from China were compounded by tepid U.S. economic data that showed U.S. retail stores struggled toward the end of 2015. Walmart announced it would close 249 stores globally and cut 16,000 jobs.
U.S. retail sales declined in December, a not entirely unexpected dip considering factors like the surprisingly warm early winter in the U.S., but still a sign that the economy is not exactly surging at the moment.
The tepid economic data added to concern that the U.S. economy could dip into a recession -- a period of negative overall economic growth.
Expect to hear the R-word more today!— Joseph Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) January 15, 2016
Others called for some calm. George Pearkes, analyst for Bespoke Investment, noted that some of the concern over the recent economic reports had been overstated, particularly over falling revenue for retail sales.
He pointed to oil as a prime example of a situation in which growing demand -- an indicator of economic health --- had been more than offset by falling prices. A variety of other retail categories posted decent gains, with comparisons to a year ago looking even better, he added.