For 3 consecutive sessions, the Wall Street market experienced a decline, except for utility counters while the US dollar remained an option ahead of the FOMC meeting.
Major stocks in Europe and Asia also fell as fears of weak global economic growth reversed investor sentiment.
During yesterday's Wall Street session, the Dow Jones Industrial fell 1.03%, the S&P 500 fell 1.44% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2%.
Europe's STOXX 600 index closed 0.58% lower while MSCI's global gauge measuring a total of 47 other country stocks plunged 1.26%, a 3rd decline from last week's 3-month high.
Asian trading this morning saw Japan's Nikkei 225 down 0.59%, Topix down 0.44%, South Korea's Kospi down 0.29%, Kosdaq down 0.58%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 down 0.68% and MSCI Asia Pacific down 0.16%.
In the meantime, the dollar continued to strengthen against a number of other major currencies with the return of concerns over aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve (Fed).
Investors expect the Fed to raise interest rates by 50 basis points after good US jobs and economic activity data, hinting at its ability to accommodate aggressive tightening policies.
This also signals that a recession is likely to happen with Chief Executive Jason Pride insisting that it is no longer a hypothesis but a reality.
That base was reached based on the fall in Treasury yields deepening the inverted yield curve, an indicator of recession.
The 10-year note yield was last checked down 6.6 basis points at 3.533%, with the gap between the 10- and 2-year yields at -83.7 basis points.
