Msnbc.com staff and wire
Headed into the last hour of the trading day stocks still hung around their lows for the session. Bank stocks were especially hurt by securities firm MF Global’s bankruptcy filing.
The Dow Jones industrial average was off 1.4 percent. The S&P 500 was 1.5 percent lower. The Nasdaq was down 1 percent.
MF Global’s filing listed JPMorgan Chase & Co. the brokerage's largest creditor. JPMorgan, widely considered the strongest of the big banks, dropped 3.4 percent.
Other banks sank. Bank of America lost 4.3 percent. Citigroup dropped 5 percent, and Morgan Stanley 5.8 percent.
Despite the downturn, October may go down as one of the best months on record for stocks. The Standard & Poor's 500 index has gained 12 percent for the month, which puts the broadest stock-market measure on track for its best month since January 1987. Even after a decline Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average is still up 10.6 percent in October, its best month since August 1982.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned Monday that European economies will see a "marked slowdown" next year. The organization called on the European Union to provide more information on how it plans to stem the debt crisis.
The European debt crisis is still far from fixed. One troubling sign is that borrowing costs for Italy and Spain have increased, a signal that traders remain worried about their ability to pay their debts.
Robert Lenzner of Forbes and Bethany McClean, CNBC contributor, discuss the impact of the MF Global filing on CNBC: