NEW YORK, New York - Investors continued to bail out of U.S. stocks on Tuesday as mounting layoffs continued.
Morgan Stanley on Tuesday reported two percent of its workforce around the globe, approximately 1,600 people, will be let go.

"Fundamentally, we are seeing another round of major layoffs this week, and that only increases the odds that we have a hard landing in 2023 and enter a deeper recession than was initially expected," Adam Sarhan, CEO of 50 Park Investments, told CNBC Tuesday.

Despite relentless selling, the pressure eased towards the end of the day, and losses were trimmed.

The Nasdaq Composite dived 225.05 points or 2.00 percent to 11,014.89.

The Standard and Poor's 500 decelerated 57.58 points or 1.44 percent to 3,941.26.

The Dow Jones industrials gave up 350.76 points or 1.03 percent to 33,596.34.

On foreign exchange markets, the U.S. dollar ground higher. The euro dipped to 1.0467 approaching the New York close Tuesday. The British pound softened to 1.2145. The Japanese yen was little changed at 136.90, as was the Swiss franc at 0.9418.

The Canadian dollar dived to 1.3649. The Australian dollar slipped to 0.6691 after the Reserve Bank of Australia hiked official interest rates by 25 basis points, the eighth monthly increase in a row. The New Zealand dollar was unwanted at 0.6320.

On overseas equity markets, shares in Europe were also sold off. "It's been another lackluster and negative session for European markets, with investors keeping their gaze very much fixed on next week's central bank meetings from the Federal Reserve, as well as the European Central Bank," CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson told PA Media Tuesday.

"Having seen decent gains over the last few weeks, there appears to be little appetite to drive markets much higher in the short term, with modest profit-taking helping to keep a lid on things."

In Germany, the Dax tumbled 104.42 points or 0.72 percent to 14,343.19.

The Paris-based CAC 40 let go 9.17 points or 0.14 percent to 6,687.79.

In London, the FTSE 100 dropped 46.15 points or 0.61 percent to 7,521.39.

On Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 in Japan added 65.47 points or 0.24 percent to 27,885.87/

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng declined 77.11 points or 0.40 percent to 19,441.18.

China's Shanghai Composite was flat, inching IP 0.72 of a point ot 0.02 percent to 3,212.53.

The Australian All Ordinaries retreated 40.10 points or 0.53 percent to 7,487.70.

In Indonesia, the Jakarta Composite Index fell 94.76 points or 1.36 percent to 6,892.57.

New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 dropped 46.15 points or 0.40 percent to 11,631.60.

The Kospi Composite in Seoul, South Korea, was down 26.16 points or 1.08 percent at 2,393.16.