Wall Street opened the new month with strong sales

The three leading U.S. indexes fell by more than 2 %.

.U.S. stocks were subjected to strong sales in the first trading session of February , after market participants reacted negatively to the previously published pessimistic economic data from the U.S. and China.

Wide benchmark S & P 500 lost 2.28% to 1 741.93 points. The blue -chip Dow Jones fell by 2.07% to 15 373.64 points, while the technology-oriented Nasdaq Composite erased 2.61% to 3 996.96 points.

Published earlier in the day U.S. data showed that production has slowed its expansion to 8- month low in January , says CNBC. The sector PMI index of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) fell to 51.3 points compared to 57 points in December. The market consensus predicted level of 56 points.

" Report this scares people before the publication of data created jobs in the private sector on Friday ," said Andres Garcia - Amaya , global market strategist at JPMorgan.

"The importance of the report of the ISM is not lost in markets that are not sure how the new head of the Fed will react. Janet Yellen will testify before Congress on February 11 ," he added .

At the same time preparation by Markit Economics PMI index for the first force in the world economy gave the same - to 53.7 points compared to 55 points achieved in December.

Earlier in the day Yellen was sworn in as chairman of the U.S. central bank , replacing the post Ben Bernanke . Thus she became the first woman to assume the leadership of the Washington-based financial institution.

It oath before Governor Daniel Tarun in the boardroom of the Federal Reserve earlier in the day. Janet Yellen will be the head of the institution in the next four years after the last three was a replacement for Bernanke .

Investor concerns were with the possible slowdown in China, driven by recent weak economic data. Government report proved that manufacturing activity has given way to a six - month low in January. Earlier in the day did the services sector in the second largest economy in the world reported slower than expected expansion last month.

Minister of Finance USA Jacob Lew urged Congress should hurry with the lifting of the debt ceiling .

"It is high it is imperative that Congress act immediately to increase our ability to borrow ," said Liu in a speech in Washington. " In short , time is pressing ," added Finance Minister.

On Friday the United States will reach the prescribed statutory limit on the costs that the government can implement . The only institution that has the power to raise the debt limit is Congress .

After that date, " the Treasury will be forced to take extraordinary measures to continue to fund the government ," said Liu . Toy added that these measures can only work for a short period and at the end of the month and will end their term .

The dollar fell against the world 's major trading partners of the U.S., while the yield on 10 -year government bonds fell 6 basis points to 3- month low of 2.588 percent .

Crude oil futures fell 0.77 % to 96.74 dollars per barrel , while the price of contracts on gold rose 1.45 % to 1 257.80 dollars an ounce.