Stocks tumbled Thursday as investors digested the Federal Reserve’s decision a day earlier to hike interest rates and increasingly realized that the country may head into an economic recession.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 700 points in early trading and traded below 30,000 for the first time since January 2021.
The S&P 500, which entered a bear market earlier this week, and the Nasdaq were also down Thursday.
Stocks rallied on Wednesday after the Fed raised interest rates by 75 basis points in a bid to tamp down inflation.
Those gains reversed Thursday as investors grappled with the realization the Fed might not be able to give the economy a soft landing that tames inflation while avoiding a recession.
Central banks around the world are adopting aggressive measures, too.
Tech companies are eyeing layoffs or slowing down hiring as they eye a potential slowdown in demand.
“There is an astonishing level of tech selling right now,” CNBC’s Jim Cramer tweeted. “It is breathtaking to watch as sellers are sending the best techs down gigantically at 5 am.”
