Markets slide on concerns over central banks

Renewed concerns that central banks will ease off their support for the global economy hit the U.S. stock market Tuesday, wiping out its gain for the month.

It looked bad from the start. Indexes began sliding from the opening bell, trailing markets in Asia and Europe, which were rattled when the Bank of Japan decided not to take any new steps to spur growth in the world's third-largest economy.

The news out of Japan added to questions surrounding global central banks, investors said. U.S. markets have been shaken by speculation that the Federal Reserve will start curtailing its own bond-buying program in the coming months.

"There's just a lot of uncertainty," said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at the brokerage BTIG in New York. "People are worried about the Fed. They're worried about a spike in interest rates."

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 116.57 points to 15,122.02. That's a decline of 0.76 percent. It fell as much as 152 points in the first hour of trading, climbed back by midday and then sank in the afternoon.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index closed at 1,626.13, a loss of 1.02 percent. The S&P is now down 0.3 percent for the month.

The Nasdaq composite fell to 3,436.95, a drop of 1.06 percent.-- AP