Stocks ended sharply lower after the head of the Federal Reserve dashed Wall Street’s hopes that it may soon ease up on rate hikes in its effort to tame inflation.
The S&P 500 lost 3.4% Friday, its biggest drop in two months, after Jerome Powell said the Fed will likely need to keep interest rates high enough to slow the economy for some time in order to beat back the high inflation sweeping the country. Tech stocks led the way lower, pulling the Nasdaq composite down even more. Higher rates help corral inflation, but they also hurt asset prices.
On Friday:
The S&P 500 fell 141.46 points, or 3.4%, to 4,057.66.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,008.38 points, or 3%, to 32,283.40.
The Nasdaq fell 497.56 points, or 3.9%, to 12,141.71.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 64.81 points, or 3.3%, to 1,899.83.
For the week:
The S&P 500 is down 170.82 points, or 4%.
The Dow is down 1,423.34 points, or 4.2%.
The Nasdaq is down 563.50 points, or 4.4%.
The Russell 2000 is down 57.52 points, or 2.9%.
For the year:
The S&P 500 is down 708.52 points, or 14.9%.
The Dow is down 4,054.90 points, or 11.2%.
The Nasdaq is down 3,503.26 points, or 22.4%.
The Russell 2000 is down 345.48 points, or 15.4%.
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