NEW YORK - U.S. stocks plunged Tuesday after the Federal Reserve, responding to a growing financial market crisis, slashed interest rates 0.75 percentage point.

Moments after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 447 points and the Nasdaq index was off 117 points.

The Fed’s move was unsurprising, given that world stock markets were falling precipitously the past two days, and that U.S. stocks had tumbled last week amid growing fears of a recession in the United States. Still, the markets remain quite anxious, not sure that even interest rate cuts will lift an economy slammed by an ongoing housing and credit crisis.