US stocks fell while treasury yields rose after investors digested Federal Reserve (Fed) minutes which saw plans for faster rate hikes and a reduction in asset holdings to offset high inflation.
The minute report saw the Fed shift to a more hawkish direction in its monetary policy and bottom line investors agreed to hasten the end of the pandemic-era bill-buying program and forecast a rate hike of 3 hundred percent by 2022.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 392.54 points, or 1.07%, at 36,407.11, the S&P 500 was down 92.96 eyes, or 1.94% at 4,700.58 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 522.54 or 3.34% at 15,100.17, dragged down by tech giants such as Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc Google. , Amazon.com, Meta Platorms and Microsoft Corp.
Meanwhile, US 2-year and 5-year yields surged to their highest levels since March and February 2020 and the US 10-year yield marker peaked 1.7% since April 2021 while 30-year yields hit their highest levels in more than 2 months.
The US dollar fell on Wednesday but pared losses to a 0.091% decline.
Crude was up 0.09% at $77.06 a barrel and Brent oil was up 0.1% at $80.08.
Spot gold was down 0.3% at $1,809.58 an ounce and trading front gold was up 0.06% at $1,824.60 an ounce.
Bitcoin is down 3.5% at $44,201 but a Goldman Sachs investigative note states that Bitcoin may take a share in the market over gold as a 'store of value' if the digital asset becomes more widely accepted and its price can hit $100,000 within 5 years.
