U.S. stocks slumped Wednesday as the price of oil suffered its worst one-day drop since September, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell to its lowest level in almost two years.
China's tumbling stock prices are, in themselves, nothing for investors outside the country to panic over. But some of the reasons for the slide are plenty troubling.
Global financial markets took a sharp downturn Monday, on the first trading day of the New Year. Wall Street rebounded somewhat late in the afternoon, but the Dow Jones still lost 276 points or 1.6 percent, its worst day in two weeks.
Well, that was exciting. Days after China threw the biggest scare into Wall Street in years, U.S. stocks have come surging back and ended the week Friday on a placid note that suggested the worst may be over for now.