Biotechs (-4.5%) fell after Hillary Clinton said she would announce a plan to stop “price gouging” for specialty drugs, highlighting the sector’s vulnerability because of its high valuations; today’s selling dropped the IBB below its 200-day Massachusetts .

Biogen fell 5.6 percent to US$297.16 and Gilead was down 2.5 percent at US$105.74.

Bank stocks had been hit hard last week by the Federal Reserve’s decision Thursday to hold its key interest rate at zero; a higher interest rate could boost profits.

Australia’s S&P ASX 200 index clawed back some of Monday’s sharp losses in early trade.

“We have a new level of uncertainty and that kind of hinders the investor from grabbing the ball and running with it”, said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.

In Australia, the market on Monday fell sharply, following a steep decline in United States markets prompted by concerns about global growth. Investors are now focusing on the next Fed meeting on October . 27-28, though some economists now wonder whether the Fed will raise rates at all this year.

Europe’s major markets were headed toward ending the day in the green, led by France’s CAC 40, which was up 1.21 percent in afternoon trading. The Wall Street Journal reported Apple has designated building an electric vehicle as a “committed project” and has set a target shipping date for 2019.

At 1:09 p.m. ET (1709 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average was up 47.83 points, or 0.29 percent, at 16,432.41, the S&P 500 was up 2.62 points, or 0.13 percent, at 1,960.65 and the Nasdaq composite was down 18.20 points, or 0.38 percent, at 4,809.02.

Semiconductor company Atmel surged 12.7 per cent on news it agreed to be acquired by Britain’s Dialog Semiconductor for US$4.6 billion.

Action camera maker GoPro (Xetra: A1XE7G – news) sank 8.2 percent following a Barron’s article warning shares would fall due to increased competition.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,870 to 1,147, for a 1.63-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,431 issues fell and 1,373 advanced for a 1.04-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.