U.S. stocks pared steep initial losses after a plunge in Chinese equities spilled over to global markets on Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average recently declined 141 points, or 0.8%, to 16791, after earlier falling as much as 318 points. The S&P 500 dropped 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.2%.

The selloff came after the People’s Bank of China made its largest downward adjustment to the yuan since August, sending the country’s stock market down over 7% amid concerns about capital flight from the Asian giant. China said later Thursday that it would suspend its new circuit breaker mechanism that has been at the center of its stock market unrest.

Some investors said they are watching for further volatility in global markets as they sift through Beijing’s response to the turmoil for clues to the depth of the country’s economic problems.

“A very large connected economy is a hard bullet to dodge for all equity markets,” said Nicholas Melhuish, head of global equities at Amundi Asset Management.

China’s stock markets stopped trading after only 30 minutes, ending the shortest trading day in their history after the newly installed mechanism to limit volatility was triggered for the second time this week.

Read the article “Global Stocks Slide on China Volatility” on wsj.com.