After a few minutes of trading Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 1.8 percent, the broad S&P 500 index is down 1.7 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index is down 2.0 percent.
The decline on leading European stock exchanges is even greater. The DAX index is down 4.0 percent, the CAC 40 in Paris is down 3.2 percent and the London Stock Exchange's FTSE index is down 2.9 percent.
Oil prices continue to rise. In the afternoon, the price of a barrel of North Sea oil is close to $85, up from around $77 on Monday evening.
