Stocks continued to sink on Friday, dragging markets further down at the end of an increasingly gloomy week.
The S&P 500 fell 1.4 percent around midday on Friday, adding to the steep loss in the previous day’s session. The benchmark index is down close to 19 percent for the year and is set to record a second consecutive weekly loss.
Wall Street has been wary of the effects that central bankers’ determination to fight inflation could have on the economy. This week, officials at the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England raised interest rates again and said they were committed to keep tightening their policies until high prices come under control.
The yield on the two-year U.S. Treasury note remains well above that of the 10-year equivalent, a so-called inverted yield curve that many consider a reliable sign of a recession.
On Friday, one of the Fed’s highest-ranking officials said that the central bank was getting closer to a sufficiently high interest rate setting.
“We’re well on our way there,” John Williams, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said on Bloomberg Television. “We’re getting to a better place.”
Elsewhere, the Stoxx 600 in Europe fell by about 1.3 percent and the FTSE 100 in London fell by 1.3 percent. In Asia, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 0.4 percent and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo fell by 1.9 percent.
The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the U.S. benchmark, fell more than 3 percent to about $74 a barrel.
Jeanna Smialek contributed reporting.
Isabella Simonetti
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