2014.03.1403:34:34UTC+00US shares plunge on escalating Ukraine upheaval

The Wall Street skidded on Thursday, with the Dow and the S&P 500 enduring their worst day since early February, on elevating worries about Ukraine and Russia, as well as new hints of an economic slowdown in China.

Selling ascended in afternoon trading following Russia commenced military drills close to its border with Ukraine, showing no cue of breaking its plans to adjoin its neighbor's Crimea region amid a stronger than anticipated push for sanctions from the European Union and the United States.

In an unusually vigorous and blazing speech, German Chancellor Angela Merkel cautioned of tragedy unless Russia shifts course. The CBOE Volatility index, Wall Street's fear gauge, leaped more than 12% to 16.22. The benchmark normally moves opposite to the S&P 500. A key emerging market exchange-traded fund, iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF, dropped 1.8% to $38.19.

China's economy slowed noticeably in the first two months this year, as progress in investment, retail sales, and factory output all plunged to multi-year lows. The S&P 500 disrupted below its 10-day and 14-day moving averages, which were acting as short-term technical support levels. It also broke below the 1,850 level.

The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 231.19 points or 1.41%, to 16,108.89. The S&P 500 missed 21.86 points or 1.17%, to 1,846.34. The Nasdaq Composite slid 62.912 points or 1.46%, to 4,260.42. Economically-sensitive sectors like industrials, went down 1.5%, and technology, fell 1.6%, paced the worst. General Electric slipped 1.6% to $25.34 while Apple Inc. erased 1.1% to $530.65.

Earlier, profits were backed by better than anticipated weekly initial jobless claims and retail sales figures for February, although last month of retail sales was amended lower. Import prices gained 0.9% last month, their largest rise in a year as petroleum advanced, but there was little hint of a wide pick-up in imported inflation.

Around 7.5 billion shares listed on US exchanges, based on BATS Global Markets, were over 6.8 billion daily average so far this month.