U.S. stocks had their worst day in nearly three weeks on Monday as protests in China raised global-growth risks and Federal Reserve officials said more interest-rate increases will be needed to subdue inflation.
How stocks traded
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-1.45%
finished down by 497.57 points, or 1.5%, at 33,849.46, not far from its session low.
The S&P 500
SPX,
-1.54%
ended down by 62.18 points, or 1.5%, at 3,963.94.
The Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-1.58%
closed down by 176.86 points, or 1.6%, at 11,049.50.
Monday’s declines were the biggest for all three indexes since Nov. 9, according to Dow Jones Market Data. U.S. stocks had notched weekly gains last week for the second time in three weeks. The Dow rose 1.8%, the S&P 500 advanced 1.5% and the Nasdaq gained 0.7%.
What drove markets
Wall Street started the week in a downbeat mood as traders absorbed the impact of unrest in China and assessed interest-rate commentary by a pair of Fed officials on Monday.
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told MarketWatch that he favors more aggressive interest-rate hikes to contain inflation, and that the central bank will likely need to keep interest rates above 5% into 2024. Meanwhile, John Williams, president of the New York Fed, said that U.S. unemployment could climb to as high as 5% next year, versus October’s rate of 3.7%, in response to the central bank’s series of rate hikes.
Overseas, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index
HSI,
-1.57%
closed down by 1.6% and most equity indexes across Asia also fell, with the exception of India’s, on concerns about unrest in China. Those concerns also spilled over into commodity markets, where West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery
CLF23,
-0.57%
briefly fell to less than $74 per barrel before recovering and settling at $77.24 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Meanwhile, copper prices HG00…
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