U.S. stocks ended lower on Thursday after attempting to claw back Wednesday’s losses, as Treasury yields and the dollar climbed further after the Federal Reserve delivered a third jumbo interest-rate hike and signaled more to come.
What happened
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.35% finished 107.10 points lower, or 0.4%, to 30,076.68
- The S&P 500 SPX, -0.84% was down 31.94 points, or 0.8%, at 3,757.99
- The Nasdaq Composite COMP, -1.37% shed 153.39 points, or 1.4%, ending at 11,066.81
Stocks finished sharply lower Wednesday after a volatile session, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 522 points, or 1.7%, while the S&P 500 declined 1.7% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.8%. The S&P 500 is down more than 21% for the year, and the Nasdaq Composite has lost roughly 29% over that period.
What drove markets
U.S. stocks declined for most of the session on Thursday following Wednesday’s selloff after the Federal Reserve produced another 75 basis-point rate hike and reiterated its commitment to crush inflation, even if it means driving the U.S. economy into a recession.
“We will keep at it until the job is done,” Chair Jerome Powell said in a news conference on Wednesday after the Fed increased its policy interest rate for the third time in a row by 75 basis points to a range of 3% to 3.25%. “I wish there were a painless way to do that. There isn’t,” he added.
