Wall Street starts new year with 1% slide on global slowdown jitters

US stocks started the new year with a more than one percent decline on Wednesday, as weak data in Asia and Europe confirmed fears of a global economic slowdown while the US government shutdown dragged on.

All 11 major S&P sectors were lower in early trading, with declines in the technology and healthcare indexes weighing the most on the market. All 30 of the Dow Industrial components were in the red.

China's factory activity contracted for the first time in 19 months in December, hit by the Sino-US trade war, with the weakness spilling over to other Asian economies. Euro zone manufacturing activity dropped for the fifth month and barely avoided contraction.

The grim readings come ahead of the closely watched US manufacturing survey on Thursday, payrolls data on Friday and the US earnings season later this month, which is expected to show corporate profit shrunk in the October-December quarter.

"Increasing evidence of China's economy weakening further has sent chills throughout global markets. This fear has been a depressing factor for the markets," Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities, said in a client note.

At 9:56 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 259.33 points, or 1.11 per cent, at 23,068.13, the S&P 500 was down 27.61 points, or 1.10 per cent, at 2,479.24 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 79.29 points, or 1.20 per cent, at 6,555.98.

The tech index slipped 1.15 percent, with Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc down nearly 2 percent. Amazon.com Inc and Netflix Inc fell over 1 percent to drag the consumer discretionary sector down by 0.90 percent.

Healthcare, 2018's best performing sector, dropped 1.61 per cent, while energy, last year's worst performing sector, fell 0.94 per cent as concerns about an economic slowdown also hit oil prices.

A low appetite for risk sparked demand for U.S. Treasuries, sending yields on 10-year debt to a 12-month low of 2.6470 per cent.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress is set to reconvene with no signs of a workable plan to end a 12-day-old partial shutdown and Trump not budging on his demand for $5 billion to fund a border wall. A Democrat plan to approve a two-part spending package does not include these funds.

Tesla Inc sank 8.6 per cent after the electric car maker delivered fewer-than-expected Model 3 sedans in the fourth quarter and cut prices for all its vehicles in the United States in response to the loss of a green tax credit.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 4.22-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 2.43-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded no new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded three new highs and 44 new lows.