US stocks continue their slide in September

Wall Street had a bleak August — and September didn’t start off any better.

The Dow Jones industrial average cratered 470 points, or 2.8 percent, on Tuesday, its third straight day of losses — wiping out almost all of the gains booked in a brief market rebound last week.

Data out of Beijing about a slowdown in the Chinese economy spooked US investors, pushing the Dow, once again, into market correction territory — a drop of 10 percent from its high.

US stocks have been pummeled since Aug. 18, losing almost 1,500 points, after a rout in Chinese companies alerted investors to a global economic slowdown.

The US markets have been on a wild ride since then, losing more than 1,000 points in the opening minutes of trading on Aug. 24 before closing at a low of 15,666 the next day.

“Overall, we expect global growth to remain moderate and likely weaker than we anticipated last July,” Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, said in a speech Tuesday. “This reflects two forces: a weaker-than-expected recovery in advanced economies, and a further slowdown in emerging economies, especially in Latin America.”

Investors are bracing for the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting, where Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is expected to decide if the central bank is going to raise the cost of borrowing money for the first time in more than nine years.

The prolonged market turmoil has had some investors wringing their hands that an increase in interest rates in the near future could be damaging for markets.

Last week, New York Fed CEO William Dudley said that there was a “less compelling” case to raise rates after the market rout started.

This year has been less than generous for stock investors after nearly four years of uninterrupted growth.

Dow investors lost 6.6 percent in August, making it the worst month for the blue chip stock index in more than five years.

Apple, which had withstood much of the market rout last week, was the worst performer in the Dow on Tuesday, dropping 4.5 percent, to $107.72 a share.

“Is the worst behind us? Possibly not,” Sam Stovall, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ, said in a note to investors on Monday.

Stovall had previously told The Post that the bear market could last until mid-September.