Dow sheds more than 500 points

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday in New York.

U.S. stocks took a steep dive on Thursday on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging more than 4 per cent.

The three major U.S. stock indices all shed more than 4 per cent on the day and erased their gains for the year.

The blue-chip Dow shed 512.61 points, or 4.31 per cent, to 11,383.83. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 incex dropped 60.26 points, or 4.78 per cent, to 1,200.08. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index plummeted 136.68 points, or 5.08 per cent, to 2,556.39.

Investors were instead seeking the relative safety of treasury bonds, pushing yields for the investment to a record low.