BRASILIA: Brazilian stocks fell 3% on Wednesday, on course for their biggest one-day loss since March 27, slammed by growing fears of recession in the United States, economic weakness in Europe and continued market turbulence in neighboring Argentina.

The benchmark Bovespa stock market's fall took it to within 100 points of falling back below the 100,000-point mark, while the real slumped almost 2% to 4.04 reais per dollar , its weakest level since late May.