Maybe we shouldn’t get ready to party like it’s 1999.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index on Tuesday lost 2.04 percent of its value as U.S. stocks were shaken in the wake of the second consecutive day of market turbulence worldwide.

The Nasdaq is now off 19.8 percent from its 2007 high, just shy of bear market territory.

Among bellwether tech companies Google, Intel, Microsoft, Yahoo, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems each shed between 1.95 percent and 6.30 percent of their value.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished the day down 128.11 points, losing 1.06 percent. The Nasdaq shed 47.75 points. The Standard & Poor’s 500 declined by 14.69 points, losing 1.11 percent of its value.

Investor nervousness was evident at the beginning of the week as the world’s markets began to get rattled. On Monday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped by 3.9 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined by 5.5 percent, and India’s benchmark Sensex index fell by 7.4 percent.

Growing concerns about a U.S. recession, which would serve as a drag on global growth, hit other major indexes as well. Britain’s FTSE-100 dropped by 5.5 percent and Germany’s DAX 30 lineup of stocks fell by 7.2 percent.

U.S. stock markets were closed Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Before they reopened Tuesday, worldwide markets were hit with another round of carnage. In overnight trading Tuesday, the Nikkei 225 declined by another 5.7 percent and the Hang Seng lost another 8.7 percent of its value. India’s Sensex index immediately dropped by 11.5 percent before trading was halted for about an hour. The Sensex finished the day with a more modest decline of 5 percent.

About an hour before U.S. markets were scheduled to reopen, the Federal Reserve, in a surprise move, cut the federal funds and discount rates by 75 basis points each, or by three-fourths of a percent. That marked the biggest reduction in the federal funds rate since 1984. That’s the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com, described the rate cut as “a once-in-a-generation event,” according to The New York Times.

“The world’s stock markets are in meltdown so the Fed came in with an inter-meeting move to try to stop the panic,” Christopher Rupkey, senior economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, told The Associated Press.

The White House also tried to reassure investors by announcing Tuesday morning that it would be willing to increase its $150 billion economic stimulus package, which President Bush unveiled Friday.

U.S. stocks initially plummeted in early-morning trading Tuesday, with the Dow down by more than 460 points. Stocks then rebounded, although U.S. markets remained volatile throughout the day.

By the end of the trading day, Google had lost 2.65 percent of its value, Intel declined by 1.95 percent, and Microsoft was off by 3.09 percent.

Yahoo shed 4.14 percent and Hewlett-Packard was down by 2.35 percent. Cisco declined by 3.62 percent and Sun Microsystems dropped 4.8 percent. Oracle lost a whopping 6.30 percent of its value, making it a very bad day for company founder Larry Ellison.

“There’s no point in panicking now,” investor Richard Resch of Long Valley, New Jersey, told the AP.

“If you see me jumping out of a window six months from now, you’ll know I was wrong.”