Extending their previous session’s losses, the US markets ended significantly lower on Friday. The Dow dropped to its lowest closing level in over a year, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 hit three-month closing lows. Concerns about the outlook for the global economy continued to weigh on Wall Street following aggressive interest rate hikes by central banks around the world. Traders remain concerned the central banks' efforts to combat elevated inflation will push the global economy into a recession. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by another 75 basis points earlier this week and signaled more significant rate hikes later this year. While the Fed's projections pointed to an eventually tapering of rate hikes by next year, traders worry about the outlook for the global economy in the months ahead.
On the sectoral front, energy stocks turned in some of the market's worst performances on the day amid a steep drop by the price of crude oil. Reflecting the sell-off in the energy sector, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index plummeted by 8.3 percent, the NYSE Arca Oil Index tumbled by 7.3 percent and the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index dove by 6.4 percent. Gold stocks also moved sharply lower along with the price of the precious metal, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 5.1 percent. Concerns about a global recession also contributed to substantial weakness among steel stocks, as reflected by the 4.4 percent nosedive by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. Airline, networking, and financial stocks also saw considerable weakness, moving lower along with most of the other major sectors.
Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 486.27 points or 1.62 percent to 29,590.41, Nasdaq dropped 198.88 points or 1.80 percent to 10,867.93 and S&P 500 was down by 64.76 points 1.72 percent to 3,693.23.
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