Stocks were lower Friday as investors continued to sell into year-end on fears a recession is ahead next year because of the Federal Reserve’s unrelenting rate hiking.
The Dow Jones Industrials crumbled 465.32 points, or 1.4%, to move into noon hour at 32,736.90
The S&P 500 dipped 60.12 points, or 1.5%, to 3,835.63
The NASDAQ Composite Index dropped 149.57 points, or 1.4%, to 10,660.95.
Trading could be especially volatile Friday with a large amount of options set to expire.
The selloff was broad-based, with just 14 names in the S&P 500 trading in positive territory. The real-estate sector was off 3%, while energy backpedaled 2%.
Meanwhile, shares of Meta rose 5% after JPMorgan upgraded shares of the social media company to overweight from neutral. Shares of Adobe outperformed, up 6%, after the design software firm posted fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and guidance that topped expectations.
With these latest declines, the indexes are poised to notch a second consecutive week of losses. The S&P 500 is off more than 2% for the week and about 5% for the month of December as hopes for a year-end rally fizzle.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury tumbled, raising yields to 3.49% from Thursday’s 3.45%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices docked $2.04 to $74.07 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices restored 11 dollars to $1,798.80 U.S. an ounce.
