After a volatile week, Wall Street is bracing for more losses as U.S. stock-index futures fell sharply late Sunday.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
YM00,
-1.20%
were last down more than 400 points, while S&P 500 futures
ES00,
-1.28%
and Nasdaq-100 futures
NQ00,
-1.21%
were each off around 1.3%.
Cryptocurrencies fell over the weekend as well, with bitcoin
BTCUSD,
-1.56%
dropping below the $35,000 level, down nearly half from its record high set in November.
Stocks slumped to end the week after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank was not considering a 75-basis-point rate hike, leading some to question whether the Fed is doing enough to control inflation. The Dow tumbled more than 1,000 points Thursday, marking its worst day in five years, a day after jumping 900 points for its best day since 2020.
Read: Will Fed go too far? Dow’s violent swings put investors on lookout for recession signals
“Circumstances have locked the Federal Reserve and the U.S. inflation in a race to see who can be the most hawkish, but the Fed always seems to be in catch-up mode,” Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management said in a note Sunday night. “Questioning the ability of central banks to lean against inflation effectively remains a significant source of angst as investors weigh greater near-term policy certainty versus medium-term inflation uncertainty. The longer this goes on, it will drive even higher investor anxiety levels and pressure stocks lower.”
On Friday, the Dow
DJIA,
-0.30%
fell 98.60 points, or 0.3%, to close at 32,899.37, while the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.57%
dropped 23.53 points, or 0.6%, to finish at 4,123.34, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-1.40%
shed 173.03 points, or 1.4%, to end at 12,144.66.
For the week, the Dow and S&P 500 each slipped 0.2% while the technology-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.5%. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 fell for a fifth straight week, while the Dow dropped for a sixth consecutive week, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
