Losses on Wall Street deepen amid Washington turmoil

Wall Street was heading for another rout early Monday amid turmoil in Washington, with the Dow losing as much as two percent after its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis.

At 1525 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 22,124.44, down 1.4 per cent after earlier sliding two per cent.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 1.3 per cent to 2,384.14, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 1.0 per cent to 6,270.13.

The declines came as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnunchin was set to hold a telephone conference with top US market regulators, another effort to reassure market that analysts say may be backfiring.

On Sunday, the Treasury leader announced that he phoned top executives of the nation's six largest banks and confirmed they have adequate liquidity.

But the statement "was not especially comforting however, given that investors had not generally been questioning market functioning in recent days, despite large declines," said a note from Wells Fargo.

The Treasury ...