Dow Down 416 Points Today!

An overnight plunge in the Chinese stock market rippled across the globe today and sent U.S. stocks into a sharp downturn, with the Dow Jones industrial average at one point sinking by more than 500 points during the final hour of trading.

The sell-off underscored fears that worldwide economic growth — particularly in the U.S. — may be slowing from its torrid pace of the last year.

After dropping nearly 550 points, the Dow Jones, the key U.S. financial index, recouped some of the losses but still ended the day down 416.02, or 3.29%, to close at 12,216.24 on heavy volume of more than 2 billion shares.