NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks sank more than 2 percent Thursday, the second day of steep declines around the globe driven by concerns about rising interest rates and trade tensions that could slow economic growth.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 545 points after dropping 831 points Wednesday. The two-day loss of 5.3 percent is the biggest for Dow since February. The S&P 500 is also down more than 5 percent over the two days and after falling for the past six trading days is almost 7 percent below its Sept. 20 high.

The recent turbulence in financial markets is a contrast to what investors have grown accustomed to in a bull market that has lasted more than 10 years, the longest in history. A hallmark of the past decade has been ultralow interest rates, which the Federal Reserve used to promote growth in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

The Fed has been gradually raising interest rates over the past two years, after not having increased them since the recession. Those higher rates have been the catalyst for recent selling, stoking concerns that slower growth would impinge on corporate profits.

The selling Thursday was widespread. Energy companies sank along with oil prices and CVS lead a rout in health care stocks. Technology companies and retailers, including longtime market favorites Apple, Alphabet and Amazon, extended their recent slide.

“There isn’t much of a place to hide right now in the equity market,” said Willie Delwiche, an investment strategist at Baird.

Seeking safety, investors bought gold and government bonds. That pushed bond prices up and their yields down, ending a surge in yields that had touched off the market’s current decline. But investors found more things to worry about.

There are ongoing concerns about the unresolved trade dispute between the U.S. and China, the world’s second-biggest economy.

Strong earnings reports in the coming weeks could soothe investor nerves, but negative comments from company executives about future profits could have the opposite effect. Recently a larger-than-normal number of companies have warned third-quarter results could be weaker than analysts expected.

The benchmark S&P 500 index rose in morning trading, but ultimately gave up 57.31 points, or 2.1 percent, to 2,728.37, its lowest close in three months. The index has declined 6.7 percent during its current losing streak. That’s its steepest downturn since a 10-percent drop in early February.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 545.91 points, or 2.1 percent, to 25,052.83 after falling as much as 698. The Nasdaq composite skidded 92.99 points, or 1.3 percent, to 7,329.06. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks fell 30.03 points, or 1.9 percent, to 1,545.38.

Thursday’s losses in the U.S. followed steep declines overseas. Markets in France, Britain and Germany fell.

Tech stocks at forefront of Wall Street’s slump

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Technology and internet stocks have led the way for much of Wall Street’s bull market run, propelling the stocks of big names like Apple, Amazon and Google’s parent company sharply higher along the way.

Now those high-flying stocks are at the forefront of a wave of selling as investors fret about the possible impact of a recent surge in interest rates.

Those jitters gave the Nasdaq composite index, which has a high concentration of technology companies, its biggest loss in more than two years Wednesday. It extended its slide Thursday and has fallen 9.6 percent since it set a record high in late August.

Apple, Microsoft and Netflix have posted steep declines. Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet, respectively the second-and fourth-most valuable U.S. companies, have fallen more than 10 percent from their recent peaks. Facebook, the sixth-largest company, has shed 29 percent since late July.

“The sell-off was perhaps a little overdone,” said Lindsey Bell, investment strategist at CFRA. “A lot of it may have been investors just kind of taking profits in some of the high-flyers of the year that also have high valuations.”

The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped from 3.05 percent early last week to more than 3.20 percent Wednesday, a seven-year high. It dipped to 3.15 percent Thursday.

Interest rates tend to follow increases in bond yields, eroding profits for companies, which have to pay higher interest-rate costs to borrow money. They also make bonds more attractive investments relative to stocks.

Technology and internet-based companies are known for their high profit margins, and many have reported explosive growth in recent years, with corresponding gains in their stock prices. That’s made them particularly vulnerable to higher interest rates, because it makes the stocks’ already high valuations look even more stretched.

Investors have other reasons to worry about the tech sector stocks. Those include the potential impact that the U.S.-China trade dispute may have on big tech companies, which tend to do a lot of business in China.

In addition, the big-name tech stocks have been faring so well for so long that investors have been betting on even bigger things to come from the companies. Those wagers might take longer to pay off, or worse, fizzle completely if a slowing economy or recession undermines their future growth.