Stocks Tumbled amid Global Rout

U.S. stocks plummeted early Monday, with the Dow falling more than 1000 points, as investors were shaken by the rout in Chinese equity markets and worries about global economic growth. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately tumbled 636.51 points, or 3.87%, to 15,823.24. The S&P 500 plunged 80.40 points, or 4.08%, to 1,890.49. The Nasdaq Composite dived 209.43 points, or 4.45%, to 4,496.61.

Chinese stocks plummeted Monday, erasing gains for the year, as fears about the deepening effects of a slowdown in the world’s No. 2 economy rattled investors world-wide.

The plunge in oil prices accelerated Monday, in line with the selloff in global financial markets. Light, sweet crude futures for delivery in October dropped below $39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, setting it on track to close below that level for the first time since February 2009.
The White House on Monday announced plans to increase renewable energy exploration and decrease homeowners’ cost of using rooftop solar panels and other such energies

Power producer Southern Co said it would buy AGL Resources Inc for about $8 billion in cash, making it the No. 2 U.S. utility by customers after Exelon Corp. The combined company will have generation capacity of about 46 gigawatts and will operate nearly 200,000 miles of electric lines and more than 80,000 miles of gas pipelines.

Netflix NFLX -16.63% said on Monday that it will partner with Japan’s SoftBank Group when launching its popular video streaming service in that country next month.

Gold edged lower on Monday but remained near a seven-week high. Spot gold was down 0.2 percent at $1,158.51 an ounce by 1145 GMT, with investors taking profits after the metal hit its highest since July 7 at $1,168.40 on Friday.