U.S. stocks were falling for a fourth straight session on Monday as investors looked on nervously at the chaos in Washington. In addition to the continuing government shutdown that had no obvious end in sight, investors were also reacting nervously to a series of moves by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that were meant to calm the waters but seem to have had the exact opposite effect. The benchmark S&P 500 index is experiencing the worst December since the Great Depression as all of its 11 major sectors were in the red Monday. For now, stocks are on track to have their worst year since 2008.

On Sunday, Mnuchin said he had been in touch with the heads of six major banks and they assured him they had “ample liquidity available for lending.” The statement left many Wall Street insiders scratching their head because even though stocks have been going through a rough patch this month, no one had really thought the problem was due to a lack of cash for lending. Mnuchin also said he would convene the President’s Working Group on financial markets, which also rattled investors. “It seems unexpected, abrupt and unnecessary,” Michael Purves, chief global strategist at Weeden & Co in Greenwich, Connecticut, told Reuters. The regulators told Mnuchin on Monday that there was nothing strange going on in the markets.

Analysts warned Monday that the selloff is likely to continue if there is still gridlock in Washington and the partial government shutdown drags on. “While sentiment looks to be skewed towards fear, most market participants seem to be looking for a plausible excuse to sell,” Nomura strategist Masanari Takada wrote in a note, reports Bloomberg.