A steep sell-off in stocks got a little less bad by the end of the day, but it still left indexes down sharply for the second day in a row.

Banks and technology shares fell sharply Monday. Facebook sank 4 percent and Amazon, which more than doubled last year, lost 3 percent.

The losses brought the Nasdaq composite index down almost 20 percent from its record high last year.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 177, or 1.1 percent, to 16,027. It was down as much as 401 earlier.

The Standard & Poor's 500 lost 26 points, or 1.4 percent, to 1,853. The Nasdaq sank 79 points, or 1.8 percent, to 4,283.

Gold jumped 4 percent, and bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.75 percent.