NEW YORK, New York - Wall Street was sold off sharply on Monday with renewed fears about the U.S.-China trade war, and the prospect of a recession, as a new financial crisis began unfolding in Argentina.

Bond yields fell on concerns for the U.S. economy, gold prices spiked higher by around 1%, while safe-haven currencies jumped sharply.

"The stock market's selling off because the bond market is rallying like crazy," Brian Battle, director of trading at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago told Reuters Thomson on Monday. "There's a flight to safety and there are multiple silos of political uncertainty."

"People are starting to give up and buy treasuries to wait it out," Battle continued. "Gold is a beneficiary too."

The real action on Monday though was in Buenos Aires where the MERVAL index fell a massive 16,824.29 points, or 37.93%, to close at 16,824.29.

The peso dived by 30%, but managed to trim the day's losses to 15% by the end of the day, which was marked by extreme volatility.

At the end of the day Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 391 points, or 1.49%, at 25,896.44.

The Standard and Poor's 500 shedt 35.96 points, or 1.23%, to 2,882.69.

The Nasdaq Composite declined 95.73 points, or 1.2%, to 7,863.41.

The safe-haven currency, the Swiss franc, rose sharply to 0.9690. The Japanese yen, also favoured in times of uncertainty, was well bid at 105.27.

The euro rose from the ashes in Asia where it had dropped under 1.1200 to 1.1165. By the close in New York Monday, the European Union currency was fetching 1.1215.

The British pound fell to 1.2077, but that was an improvement on its close in Asia at 1.2059.

The Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars were little changed at 1.3240, 0.6752 and 0.6442 respectively.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 dropped 0.37%. The German Dax fell 0.12%, while in Paris, the CAC 40 slipped 0.33%.

On Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 91.52 points or 0.44% to 20,684.82.

The Shanghai Composite jumped 40.24 points or 1.45% to 2,814.99.

Only the Hong Kong Hang Seng spoiled the party. It fell 114.58 points or 0.44% to 25,824.72.

The Australian All Ords added 6.70 points or 0.10% to 6,670.10.