By Saumya Vaishampayan And Corrie Driebusch 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 1,000 points at the open Monday, a dramatic dive on a day when intensifying growth fears sparked steep stock-market losses world-wide.

The blue-chip benchmark dropped as much as 1089 points before paring some of its losses. It was recently down 603 points, or 3.7%, to 15858.

The S&P 500 dropped 99 points, or 5%, to 1872, entering correction territory. The Nasdaq Composite fell 371 points, or 7.9%, to 4335.

Before the market opened, Dow futures, S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures triggered circuit breakers after falling at least 5%.

The New York Stock Exchange operator NYSE Group Inc. invoked the rarely used "Rule 48," which relaxes some trading rules in a bid to ensure a smooth opening to trading. The rule is instituted when trading before the start of the regular session is especially volatile.

At the market open on Monday, a slew of single stocks and exchange-traded products triggered single-stock circuit breakers, which are initiated when there is a price drop of 10% or more in a five-minute period.

Fresh signs of a slowdown in China, the world's second largest economy, have jolted stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities in recent days. Investors were further rattled Monday by the lack of fresh steps to stem the selloff over the weekend from Chinese authorities.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Chinese central bank was preparing to flood the banking system with liquidity to increase lending, the latest in a series of measures designed to give the flagging economy a boost.

"A lot of markets abroad have seen a low amount of liquidity so investors are turning to the U.S. market to hedge," said Jeffrey Yu, head of single-stock derivatives trading at UBS AG. Before the market opened, traders said futures volumes were extraordinarily heavy.

While the selloff began as an emerging markets story, with China's stock market offering very little liquidity to investors due in part to technical stock-trading halts, investors have had to turn to the most liquid market to sell, which is the U.S., Mr. Yu said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has heavy international exposure, entered correction territory on Friday, defined as a decline of 10% from a recent peak.

Write to Saumya Vaishampayan at saumya.vaishampayan@wsj.com and Corrie Driebusch at corrie.driebusch@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 24, 2015 10:09 ET (14:09 GMT)