Wall Street was pulled lower by losses in growth and healthcare shares on the final trading day of a tough year, which was marked by aggressive interest-rate hikes to curb inflation, the Russia-Ukraine war and recession fears.
The three main indexes are set for their first annual drop after three straight years of gains as an era of loose monetary policy came to an end following the fastest pace of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve since the 1980s.
The benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX) has shed 20% this year and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC) is down 34%, putting them on track for their biggest yearly declines since the 2008 financial crisis, largely driven by a rout in technology shares.
Most rate-sensitive technology and growth stocks such as Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) and Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) fell between 0.7% and 1.4% on Friday, as U.S. Treasury yields rose.
This report’s information was first seen on REUTERS; to read more, click this link.
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