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US stocks opened lower and have continued to drop through the day. With about an hour remaining in the session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down three percent at 23,774.62.
The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 2.7 percent to 2,590.02, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 2.6 percent to 6,891.01.
China said it was ready to pay "any cost" in a trade war after US President Donald Trump threatened an additional $100 billion in tit-for-tat tariffs on Beijing.