As another group of Federal Reserve officials struck a hawkish tone, US stocks fell to their lowest level since November 2020, while turmoil in Europe continued to fray investor nerves.
The S&P 500 fell as much as 2.9% on Thursday, but losses were pared as markets closed. Its decline cancels out an ill-advised attempt to recover from a six-day slide on Wednesday.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell nearly 4% during the session after St. Louis Fed President James Bullard stated that investors now understand that additional rate hikes are unavoidable in the coming months. Apple dragged the index down, falling as much as 6.1% after a rare analyst downgrade from Bank of America, which warned of weaker consumer demand for its popular devices.
The interest-rate swaps market showed signs of stress, and a leveraged buyout deal was cancelled. US Treasuries recovered some of their earlier losses, with the 10-year yield hovering around 3.76%.
