A wave of anxiety rippled through financial markets today, with stocks falling in the U.S. and around the world as investors zeroed in on signs of a slowing American economy.

The S&P 500 fell 3 percent, its worst day since September 2022. The drop brings the index down 8.5 percent from its peak in July, but it’s still up 8.7 percent in 2024 overall.

“Investors were spooked by a combination of factors last week,” my colleague Lydia DePillis said. Today’s drop extended a sell-off that began after the U.S. jobs report on Friday showed significantly slower hiring, with unemployment at its highest level in nearly three years.

The report also followed a Federal Reserve meeting in which officials decided to keep interest rates steady. That fueled fears that the Fed might have waited too long to cut rates, “allowing a soft landing to turn into a more turbulent one,” Lydia said. Here’s the latest on the market meltdown.

Time to sell? It’s tough to do nothing during this kind of market turmoil. But in this case it’s your best option, Ron Lieber, our Your Money columnist, writes.