Wall Street investors couldn’t part ways with 2018 rapidly enough, but it turns out that 2019 is setting up to be equally ugly to stock-market bulls.

According to Dow Jones Market Data, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.13% and the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.59% notched their worst start to a year since 2000.

Of course, that only represents two sessions, but it is worth noting that broader market managed to eke out tepid gains on Wednesday, the day after New Year’s Day, when most major indexes were closed.

Thursday, however, represented a markedly different, and perhaps more dreary, story, with the Dow closing with a 2.8% loss, the S&P 500 ended off 2.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -1.05% booked a 3% decline.

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MarketWatch’s data team says the Dow’s loss marks the worst start to a year since 2000 when the blue-chip gauge fell 4.34% in the first two trading days. The S&P 500’s Thursday drop represents the worst such start since 2000 when it fell 4.75%.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq’s skid was worst start to a year since 2005.

Losses for the equity market were partly fueled by a one-two punch of downbeat news. Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.42% late Wednesday issued a rare reduction to its sales forecast for the latest quarter. Then Thursday morning the Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index fell to 54.1 in December, down from 59.3 in November and below the 57.9 anticipated by economists surveyed by MarketWatch economists.

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That data rattled an already fragile market that has been agonizing over the possibility of a recession taking root in the U.S. economy.

If there is any solace, it is that it eas very early in the year and as 2018 can attest, a lot can change.