With Europe also struggling to contain inflation, which is already being driven higher by energy prices, “this could be a serious problem for the eurozone economy,” said Fiona Cincotta, an analyst at City Index in London.

The Stoxx Europe 600 and the DAX index in Germany both slid 3.8 percent on Monday.

As sudden as this month’s drop in stock prices has been, it follows an unceasing run-up that had started to unnerve some investors. The S&P 500 climbed 27 percent in 2021 —  its third consecutive year of gains — and even after its drop so far in January the stock index is still about twice where it stood at its lowest point in March 2020, before the Fed first stepped in to bolster the economy.

Those gains continued late last year even as prices for food and gas climbed at a pace not seen in years, along with wages, and despite the overhang of the coronavirus pandemic. Speculators had also turned to investments as varied as cryptocurrencies, real estate and even trading cards and other collectibles, something that had alarmed many who saw signs that investors were getting carried away.

So a slide in prices that removes some of that excess was long overdue, many market watchers said.

“We haven’t had a correction in a long time,” said Lindsey Bell, the chief money and markets strategist at Ally Invest. “While this sell-off in the past couple of weeks feels uncomfortable, the good news is that, the sooner you have a sell-off or correction like we’re seeing today, the earlier and the more likely you are to make up that lost ground before year-end.”

That doesn’t mean it won’t be a bumpy year for stock investors. Growth in corporate profits is likely to slow, in particular among large technology stocks, and many companies championed by investors during the pandemic, like Peloton and Netflix, have tumbled as a return to normal means they lose momentum with new customers.

But some investors are concerned that even the largest tech companies may be faltering, something that will be exacerbated if interest rates climb — forcing them to dedicate more of their profits to debt payments, and also making it harder to achieve investors’ high expectations for growth.

Technology stocks, which have been on the leading edge of the market decline this year, were also walloped on Monday: The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite slid about 5 percent, before it rallied back to end the day with a gain of about 0.6 percent. The Nasdaq had already crossed the correction threshold last week and is now down 13.7 percent from its high.