U.S. stocks slide for third straight day

U.S. stock markets fell for the third straight day on Tuesday, following big loses in Europe on Monday.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 100.96 points, or 0.90 percent, to 11,139.30, Reuters reports. Earlier on Tuesday, the Dow had been down over 300 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 8.73 points, or 0.74 percent, to 1,165.24. The Nasdaq Composite fell 6.50 points, or 0.26 percent, to 2,473.83.

According to Reuters, concerns over Europe's debt crisis have revitalized fears of a global recession, with investors channeling cash "into less risky assets as doubts resurfaced over the political will of Italy and Greece to push through tough budget measures and as Germany hardened its stand against providing more aid"

Major bank stocks continued to decline. A massive lawsuit was recently brought against 17 large banks by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over mortgage securities.

"Right now there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty," Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial, told Reuters. "There is a decent chance that we are in a bear market."

"We've got troubles on both sides of the pond and it's hard for investors to get excited about stocks with so much uncertainty," Art Hogan, managing director at Lazard Capital Markets, told CNN.

CNN reports that investors were flocking to safe havens:

The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury rose, pushing the yield down to 1.98% from 2% late Friday. Earlier, the yield fell to a record low level of 1.91% as prices rose.

U.S. markets were closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday. On Friday, stocks fell after the Labor Department released a worse-than-expected August jobs report. President Barack Obama is scheduled to give a speech on jobs and the economy before a joint session of Congress on Thursday.