Dow in the red after steep drop

The Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered a wild day Wednesday, at one point dropping over 450 points.

{mosads}Growing drama abroad and the U.S. appeared to be too much for investors to take, as the blue-chip stock index flirted with huge losses all day Wednesday. The Dow closed the day down 173 points, or a little over 1 percent. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both also posted losses, but faced significantly deeper declines in the early afternoon.

Wednesday’s losses meant that the Dow is now in negative territory for the year, and has slid over 6 percent in less than a month.

The grim stretch in the afternoon marked the worst in what has been a particularly brutal stretch for the markets.

The sell-off began last week amid concern about a global economic slowdown, highlighted by weak growth in Europe and similar concerns in Asia. Turmoil in the Middle East and Ukraine have not helped matters.

The morning trading started with weaker-than-expected data on consumer spending, as retail sales fell further than expected. News also emerged Wednesday that a nurse who tested positive for Ebola in Texas had flown on a commercial flight two days ago, before showing symptoms. President Obama has canceled planned midterm campaign events to huddle with advisers in Washington over the matter.

The Dow opened the day down over 300 points, but roughly halved those losses in the early trading. But stocks continued a steady march downward into the afternoon. The market tried to make a comeback towards the end of the day, erasing much of the losses, but still wrapped for the day down triple-digits, after posting several days of similar losses in the last week.

— This story was updated at 4:10 p.m.