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U.S. stocks declined Wednesday, giving up some of the previous session’s sharp gains.
The Dow Jones Industrials handed over 174.22 points worth of yesterday’s gains to start Wednesday at 30,356.03.
The S&P 500 dipped 12.16 points to 3,752.63.
The NASDAQ Composite bucked the trend and nosed higher 12.45 points to 11,081.75.
Those moves come as growing fears of an economic recession continued to weigh on investors. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress on Wednesday that the central bank had the “resolve” it takes to bring inflation down, further fanning concerns aggressive monetary tightening would tip the U.S. economy into a recession.
Some Wall Street banks increased their odds of a downturn this week with Citigroup raising chances of a global recession to 50%, pointing to data that consumers are starting to pull back on spending.
Energy stocks took a hit as oil prices dropped on concern a slower economy will hurt fuel demand. Brent crude futures dropped nearly 6% to $107.78 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. oil benchmark, declined 6.5% to $102.38 per barrel.
Shares of Marathon Oil and ConocoPhillips dropped more than 5%, while Occidental Petroleum slid 4%. Exxon Mobil dipped 3%.
On Wednesday, the White House released a fact sheet calling for Congress to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes for three months.
The effort is meant to ease pressures at the pump for consumers during an election year.
On the earnings front, KB Home will post results after the market closes on Wednesday.
Treasury prices jumped, lowering yields to 3.14% from Tuesday’s 3.31%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices swooned $7.18 to $102.34 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices recovered $7.40 to $1,846.20 U.S. an ounce.
