Stocks fell marginally in early trading on Wall Street Wednesday as investors prepare to close the books for August that started off strong but left the market deeper in the red.

The S&P 500 is down 11.46 points or 0.29% to 3,973.63 as of 11:11 a.m. Eastern time. The benchmark continued to decline for the fourth straight day and is on track to end the month with an over 3% loss after surging 9.1% in July.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 92.74 points or 0.29% to 31,698.13. The Nasdaq Composite fell 31.99 points or 0.27% to 11,850.58.

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Technology, healthcare, and communication companies helped lift the broader market. Meta platforms rose 5.2%, PayPal added 4.2% and Amgen gained 1.2%.

Energy companies declined along with crude oil prices. Occidental Petroleum fell 2.1%.

Bed Bath & Beyond fell around 23% after announcing a major restructuring and a stock sale. On the other hand, Snap, the operator of the Snapchat messaging app, surged 10.3% after announcing it will lay off 20% of its staff.

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Bond yields surged. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which helps determine interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans, increased to 3.13% from 3.11% late Tuesday.

European stock markets were trading in the red during the mid-session deals. Asian markets ended mixed on Wednesday.

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Stocks got off to a strong start in early August, continuing a July rally. Investors were encouraged to see that inflation was cooling off which boosted optimism on Wall Street that the Federal Reserve might be able to ease back on increasing interest rates, the main tool in its fight to bring inflation down. The gains came after a weak first half of the year where the S&P slipped 20% from its most recent high and entered a bear market.

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The positivity faded by mid-August as the central bank indicated it would keep increasing interest rates as long as necessary to control the hottest inflation in four decades. On Friday, Federal Reserve Chairperson Jerome Powell highlighted the Fed’s intention during a speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, Wyoming.

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Investors are concerned that the Fed could raise the interest rate too high or too fast and put the already slowing economy into a recession. Higher interest rates also impact investment prices, especially for pricier stocks like technology companies.

Traders are now trying to get more insights on how far and how quickly the Fed’s rate hikes will go, beginning with the central bank’s upcoming interest rate policy meeting on September 20-21. The central bank has already hiked interest rates four times this year and is expected to raise the short-term rate by another 0.75 percentage points at its September meeting, according to CME Group.

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Investors have been monitoring economic data for any additional data that the economy is slowing down or that inflation may be cooling or at least holding at its current level.

Businesses and consumers have been severely impacted by rising prices on everything from food to clothing, but recent declines in gasoline prices have provided some relief.

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Strong US employment data have raised expectations of more interest rate hikes. According to a Labor Department report on Tuesday, there were two jobs for every unemployed person in July, supporting Fed officials who argue the economy can tolerate more rate hikes to curb inflation that is at multi-decade highs.