Thursday's early afternoon trade: Wall Street falls three percent

US stocks dived more than 3 percent on Thursday, extending losses for a fourth day, as a bleak outlook from the Federal Reserve and weak data from China heightened fears of a global recession. In one sign of the broad gloom, FedEx Corp fell 9 percent to $66.31 after the world's No 2 package delivery company pared its outlook for the full year.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 388.18 points, or 3.49 percent, at 10,736.66. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 35.53 points, or 3.05 percent, at 1,131.23. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 69.68 points, or 2.75 percent, at 2,468.51. The CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's "fear gauge," was up about 10 percent. Citigroup Inc and Morgan Stanley fell to 52-week lows earlier in the session before recovering slightly. Citigroup was down nearly 5 percent to $24.25 and Morgan Stanley slid 7.5 percent to $12.81.