Recession Warning Sends Wall Street Plunging

It was an ugly day for Wall Street, as stocks plummeted on Wednesday amid worsening economic fears after US Treasury yields briefly inverted, flashing a warning sign for a coming recession.

But US President Donald Trump once again blamed the Federal Reserve for the economic woes and the yield curve inversion, saying the US central bank is a bigger threat than China and is "clueless."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.1 per cent to finish at 25,479, a loss of about 800 points – its worst day of 2019.

The broad-based S&P 500 slumped 2.9 per cent to 2,841, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 3.0 per cent to 7,774.

The sell-off came shortly after the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note briefly dipped below the yield on the two-year, a dynamic that has been a reliable harbinger of past recessions.

The rout followed the latest stream of poor economic data from overseas, including the weakest Chinese factory output data in 17 years and German data showing the economy contracted in the second quarter. (AFP)