At the close, the Dow Jones industrial index had fallen 2.5 percent, the broad S&P index 2.4 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index 2.6 percent.
Among the explanations for Wall Street's gloom is that already badly battered market players are unwilling to take risks until more clarity is achieved regarding the tariff negotiations that President Donald Trump's government is involved in with several countries.
Tesla, the electric car company, continued to plummet and fell 5.7 percent the day before a quarterly report. Since the turn of the year, the stock has thus fallen by around 44 percent.
Semiconductor company Nvidia also struggled and fell 4.5 percent.
Seven Magnificent Falls
None of the very index-heavy tech companies known as "The Magnificent Seven" rose.
Besides Tesla and Nvidia, Alphabet, the owner of Google, e-commerce company Amazon, iPhone manufacturer Apple, Meta (Facebook), and software giant Microsoft all suffered significant falls.
American government bonds with a 10-year maturity also took a hit during the day.
The dollar reached its lowest level in three years in an international index, reports CNBC.
One dollar now costs 9.53 kronor. This can be compared to Wednesday, when the exchange rate was 9.77 kronor. In January, one dollar cost 11.25 kronor.
Attacking the Fed Chairman
Regarding the dollar's gloom, analysts point to the growing gap between Trump and Jerome Powell, the head of the central bank (Fed), on the level of interest rates.
The President continued to attack Powell personally to pressure him to lower interest rates, and concern is growing that the Fed's independence will decrease.
Another sign of mistrust in the US economy, and a consequence of the dollar's fall, was that gold reached new record levels.
The major European stock exchanges in Frankfurt, London, and Paris remain closed for the weekend, as does the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
