UPDATE – CNN Reports at the close – Wall Street was walloped Thursday by a stock sell-off driven by renewed fears about the U.S. and global economies.  Major stock indexes plunged. Investors plowed their money into safe U.S. government bonds — briefly pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury below 2%. And gold settled at a record $1,822 an ounce.  The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 419 points, or 3.7%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite each lost more than 4%.

EARLIER CNN Reports: Turmoil returned to U.S. stock markets on Thursday as renewed concerns about the global economy sent major indexes plunging and pushed gold to a new record high.
Investors were working through bad news on various fronts, including a dismal global economic forecast from Morgan Stanley and two U.S.-issued reports on inflation and the job market.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 307 points, or 2.7%. The S&P 500 was down 3%, and the Nasdaq composite lost 3.5%.
A gloomy economic report intensified fears over a slowing global recovery. Morgan Stanley slashed its global growth outlook for 2011 and 2012 and said the United States and Europe are “hovering dangerously close to a recession.”