The stock market couldn’t shake off a case of the jitters from last week and closed sharply lower again on Monday.
Airlines, energy and materials stocks were among the biggest decliners. The market is coming off its biggest weekly decline in more than two years.
Many investors remain concerned that economic growth in Europe and Asia could be slowing. A meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Luxembourg didn’t appear to ease those concerns.
The VIX, a measure of volatility that is commonly called Wall Street’s “fear index,” climbed 12.7 percent to 23.95, its highest level since June 2012.
A late slide in the last half-hour of trading came after an otherwise calm day of trading. Index futures had pointed to a higher open in premarket trading early Monday, then the market opened lower and wavered for much of the day between small gains and losses.
The late wave selling was likely triggered by automated trading programs that started selling stocks when it became clear that the S&P 500 would close below an important technical level, said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives at Schwab Center for Financial Research.
Many traders follow these levels to give them an indication about the near-term direction of the market.
In this case, the S&P 500 closed below 1,905, the 200-day moving average price for the index. The index had traded above the average since November, 2012, gaining 36 percent.
Frederick still thinks the stock market will avoid a correction — Wall Street talk for a drop of 10 percent or more — but is expecting the recent volatility to continue for a few more weeks yet.
All told, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 223.03, or 1.4 percent, to 16,321.07. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index shed 31.39, or 1.7 percent, to 1,874.74. The Nasdaq slid 62.58 points, or 1.5 percent, to 4,213.66.
All of the 10 sectors in the S&P fell, led by energy with a decline of 2.9 percent. Utilities, a safe-play sector, fell the least, just 0.1 percent. Airline stocks also fell sharply. American and Delta both fell about 6 percent.
