U.S. stocks open sharply lower, Dow drops more than 500 points after stronger-than-expected inflation

U.S. stocks opened sharply lower Tuesday as investors reacted to a stronger-than-expected inflation reading for August. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-2.24%
dropped more than 500 points, or 1.7%, soon after the opening bell, while the S&P 500
SPX,
-2.57%
fell 2.2% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-3.24%
dropped 2.9%, according to FactSet data, at last check. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday that the consumer price index showed U.S. inflation rose 0.1% in August for an annual rate of 8.3%. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast that CPI data would show a 0.1% drop in August. So-called core inflation, which excludes food and gas prices, rose 0.6% last month. The core CPI reading was also more than forecast, fueling investor concerns that the Federal Reserve may need to be more aggressive fighting inflation through large interest rate hikes that risk triggering a recession.