The Dow Jones industrial average fell 105.32 points, or 0.58 percent, to 18,037.1, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 35.56 points, or 0.69 percent, to 5,153.58.
Wall Street sold off on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 closing at the lowest level since July 7, amid growing concern over the impending US presidential election and prospects for higher US interest rates.
Stocks pared losses after falling steeply in early afternoon trading as the S&P 500 breached a key technical level.
The tumultuous presidential race between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump has appeared to tighten in the past week after news that the FBI was investigating more emails as part of a probe into Clinton's use of a private email system.
"There is concern over Trump being unexpected, because the market has really priced in a Clinton win and it hasn’t priced in a Trump win at all," said Ken Polcari, director of the NYSE floor division at O’Neil Securities in New York.
