Dow Industrials Flirt With Worst Daily Tumble In 8 Months

The U.S. stock market early Wednesday was on pace to log its worst daily decline in months, as concerns about President Donald Trump's FBI controversy weighed on investor sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.2% at 20,718, and at it lows was on pace for its sharpest decline since Sept. 13, 2016, according to FactSet data. The S&P 500 index was off 1.2% at 2,373, while the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index was down 1.7% at 6,067. The decline puts the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq indexes on pace to post their biggest one-session drops since March 21. The downdraft comes on a so-called risk-off day for Wall Street, with haven assets like the 10-year Treasury note [BX: TMUBMUSD10Y] drawing bidders and pushing yields, which move inversely to price, firmly lower. The 10-year Treasury note was off 6.6 basis points at 2.24%, and gold futures , another haven security, were up 1.7% at $1,257.40 an ounce. Weakness came after the New York Times late Tuesday reported that Trump in February asked then-director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey to stop his investigation into former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. The report cited a memo from Comey. That has raised questions about the president's ability to implement pro-market policies that have driven stocks to recent records.