The Dow Jones Industrial Average is racking up such a severe monthly loss that the blue-chip average is on the verge of putting in its worst March since 2001, when it declined 5.87%, according to WSJ Market Data Group. The Dow is presently on track to shed 700 points for the month, but at its lows Thursday afternoon, it was tracking a monthly decline of more than 800 points or more than 3%. The slump for equities comes as investors wrestled with impending import tariffs from President Donald Trump’s administration on China and jitters around the Federal Reserve’s ability to avoid pushing the economy into recession as it normalizes monetary policy from crisis-era levels amid fiscal stimulus that risks overheating an economy that is roughly in its ninth year of expansion. The Dow most recently was off 370 points, or 1.5%, at 24,313. More broadly, the S&P 500 index was down 1.2% at 2,678, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was off by 1.3% at 7,249. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are staring down their worst March declines since 2015.
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