US stocks sank more than 2 percent on Thursday, the second day of steep declines around the globe driven by concerns about rising interest rates and trade tensions that could slow economic growth.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 545 points after dropping 831 points on Wednesday. The two-day loss of 5.3 percent is the biggest for the Dow since February. The S&P 500 is also down more than 5 percent over the two days and after falling for the past six trading days is almost 7 percent below its September 20 high.

The recent turbulence in financial markets is a contrast to what investors have grown accustomed to in a bull market that has lasted more than 10 years, the longest in history. A hallmark of the past decade has been ultra-low interest rates, which the Federal Reserve used to promote growth in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

Donald Trump has stepped up his attacks on the US central bank, saying it was “too aggressive” in raising interest rates.

“I think they’re making a big mistake,” Mr Trump said during a broadcast of Fox & Friends.

While he acknowledged that higher rates helped savers, he criticised the Federal Reserve’s tactics.

“They’re being too aggressive.”

He escalated his rhetoric in a later Oval Office press conference.

“We have interest rates going up at a clip that’s much faster than certainly a lot of people, including myself, would have anticipated. I think the Fed is out of control,” he added.

It was the latest in a series of recent barrages the president has unleashed at the US Fed, which under his hand-picked chairman, Jerome Powell, has been gradually raising rates as the economy has strengthened to prevent a run-up in inflation.

Critics have expressed worry that the president’s attacks threaten the central bank’s ability to operate free of political pressure.

President Trump said in response to a question that he would not seek to remove the Federal Reserve chairman.

“No, I’m not going to fire him,” he said. “I’m just disappointed at the clip” that rates are being raised.

President Trump’s public criticism of the Fed, which began this summer, is without precedent.

The rout caused a domino effect worldwide, with losses spreading to Asia and Europe as investors remained concerned about rising rates — which would send more buyers out of equities and into bonds — as well as the impact of Mr Trump’s trade conflict with China on corporate profits.

But not long after he spoke, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Mr Trump’s opinions had no weight on the Fed’s actions.

“We know the Fed is independent. The president is not dictating policy to the Fed. He didn’t say anything remotely like that,” he said on CNBC.

Mr Kudlow said the Fed was managing “the transition from ultra, ultra easy money … to something more normal,” by raising rates gradually.

He also echoed Mr Trump’s statement that the stock market decline was an expected “normal correction.”

Mr Trump has repeatedly touted the spate of Wall Street records as proof of the success of his economic program, including his confrontational trade strategy, and criticised the Fed for raising the benchmark interest rate — three times this year — saying it would undermines his efforts.

In fact it is largely his policies that are behind the changes: tax cuts and increased government spending are expected to juice the economy, adding to the Fed’s justification to raise interest rates.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whom Mr Trump named to lead the central bank, has brushed off the comments, saying officials do not pay attention to politics.

“This is just who we are and I think who we will always be, which is, we’re a group who — we’re quite removed from the political process,” Mr Powell said in a recent interview.

“And we just try to do the right thing for the medium and longer term for the country.” International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde also defended the Fed on Thursday.

Raising interest rates was justified “for those economies that are showing much improved growth, inflation that is picking up … unemployment that is extremely low,” Ms Lagarde told a press briefing in Bali, Indonesia where the IMF is holding its annual meeting.