NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks fell sharply on Monday morning amid ongoing worries about the outlook for global growth. Materials companies were the biggest decliners. The slump kept the stock market on track for its worst quarterly performance in four years.
KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 22 points, or 1.2 percent, to 1,908 as of 11:10 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 144 points, or 1.1 percent, to 16,128. The Nasdaq composite slumped 72 points, or 1.6 percent, to 4,613.
THE SLUMP: Stocks have fallen sharply in August and September on concern that a slowdown in China, the world's second-largest economy, is worse than previously thought. On Monday analysts pointed to reports citing Chinese government statistics that showed profits in the nation's industrial companies plunged 8.8 percent last month. Investors are worried that a slowdown in emerging markets will start to hurt U.S. companies that rely on overseas demand for a large portion of their profits.
THE QUOTE: "Whenever the market is down, the first place to look these days is China," said John Manley, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo Fund Management. "Right now, we need evidence that China is not slowing that much and that profits are still going to be OK."
ALCOA SPLIT: Alcoa bucked the downward trend after announcing that it will split into two independent companies. Its bauxite, aluminum and casting operations will be in one company and its engineering and transportation businesses will be in another. The company's stock rose 42 cents, or 4.7 percent, to $9.49.
GLENCORE SLIDES: Glencore plunged after an investment bank warned that the company faced a bleak future if commodity prices don't recover. Investec Securities said in a note to investors that mining companies "gorged themselves on cheap debt" to grow production as Chinese stimulus boosted demand for raw materials in the wake of the global financial crisis. Glencore's share price was down 20 percent at a record low of 67 pence ($1.02).
In the U.S., gold and copper miner Freeport-McMoran was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500, dropping 83 cents, or 8.5 percent, to $8.97.
VW LOWER AGAIN: Volkswagen shares were down 8.2 percent as German prosecutors opened an investigation against the company's former CEO, Martin Winterkorn, to establish what his role was in the emissions-rigging scandal. The investigation aims to determine who was responsible for selling vehicles with manipulated emissions data, prosecutors in Germany said in a statement.
EUROPE'S DAY: In Europe, France's CAC-40 slid 2.9 percent while Germany's DAX fell 2 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 2.2 percent lower.
BONDS AND CURRENCIES: U.S. government bond prices rose, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury note down to 2.12 percent from 2.16 percent on Friday. The euro was little changed from Friday at $1.1201 and the dollar fell 0.7 percent to 119.9 yen.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude was down 94 cents to $44.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent, which is used to price international oils, shed $1.02 cents to $48.25 a barrel in London.