(Reuters) - U.S. stocks began 2016 sharply lower on Monday, with the Dow marking its worst start to a year since 2008, after weak Chinese economic data fanned fears of a global slowdown.
Indexes partly recovered late in the session, following a turnaround in oil prices that caused energy shares to cut losses. At its low for the day, the Dow was down 467 points and was headed for its worst first-day percentage drop since 1932. Surveys showed factory activity in the world's second-largest economy shrank sharply in December, sparking a 7-percent slide in Chinese shares that triggered a trading halt. Adding to investors' worries, China's central bank fixed the yuan at a 4-1/2 year low, further weakening it against the dollar.U.S. data sparked further concern as factory activity weakened unexpectedly in December, according to the Institute for Supply Management."There was the turmoil overnight overseas that kind of set the tone ... (but) all of the negatives out there have been out there for a while," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut. "The fact that we closed down on the year, the Fed tightened, it crystallized in investors' minds that we're not in the environment we were in throughout most of the recovery." The selloff was widespread but not as deep as the slide caused by worries of a China-led global slowdown in August, when the Dow tumbled more than 1,000 points at one point. Nasdaq led the day's decline and Amazon