Dow drops almost 1,200 points as stocks swing wildly in 2nd day of selloff

The US stock market cratered for a second day on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping as much as 1,500 points. It closed trading 1,177 points lower. The index has now erased all gains for the year.

The Monday decline follows a 666-point drop in the Dow on Friday, its biggest single-day point drop since October 2008.

Elsewhere, the S&P 500 closed down 4.08%, and the Nasdaq 100 down 3.77%.

Traders flocked to the safety of US Treasurys amid the selloff in stocks, with the 10-year yield down 12 basis points at 2.72%. Bond yields go down as demand, and therefore prices, go up. The benchmark yield hit 2.85% after Friday’s jobs report, its highest since January 2014.

The price of gold, another safe haven asset, was also slightly higher on Monday.

"Suddenly, inflation has become one of the most-talked about issues in markets, reviving many late-cycle concerns over Fed tightening, corporate margins, volatility, stock/bond correlations and hedging strategies versus asset allocation," JPMorgan strategist John Normand wrote in a note to clients Monday.

Wells Fargo was the biggest losing stock in the S&P 500 on Monday. Shares of the bank fell 9.93% to $57.71 after the Federal Reserve barred the bank from growing any larger until it improves its compliance and governance policies.

ExxonMobil saw the biggest drop in the Dow, down more than 6%. Only 2 stocks in the S&P 500 finished higher on Monday.

The White House downplayed the severity of the selloff. White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told reporters "markets do fluctuate" and "the fundamentals of this economy are very strong."

The Business Insider team has been hard at work analyzing the recent downturn in the markets. Here are some of the best stories explaining why the markets are in decline:

Hedge funds are making an unprecedented bet that's signaling more stock market pain.
will climb — and that could continue heaping pressure upon stock traders.
's blistering bull market run, investors have stayed remarkably calm, with measures of fear locked near historical lows.

Also Monday, Broadcom extended another offer for its rival chipmaker Qualcomm. The previous $103 billion bid was upped to $120 billion, even though Qualcomm has previously said it is not interested in selling.

This story is devloping, check back for more.

Dow drops almost 1,200 points as stocks swing wildly in 2nd day of selloff

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