Wall Street fell again Wednesday as stocks tumbled worldwide on worries about the economy.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 0.7% after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Republicans and Democrats remain “far apart” in their efforts to prevent a potentially disastrous default on the U.S. government’s debt. The main U.S. stock index is on track for its worst week in more than two months as the once-unthinkable creeps closer to possibility.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.8%, while the Nasdaq composite lost 0.6%.
Other markets around the world were hit even harder as discouraging figures piled up on the economy. Stock indexes tumbled 1.7% in London, 1.9% in Frankfurt and 1.6% in Hong Kong.
