Stocks fell and bond rates jumped on Wall Street on Wednesday after details from the Federal Reserve’s policymakers’ meeting last month revealed that the central bank expects to be aggressive in its attempts to combat inflation.

The S&P 500 lost 1%, adding to its losses from the previous day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4%, while the Nasdaq fell 2.2%.

Also Read| Trade Setup: Top 15 things to know before market opens on April 7, 2022

According to the minutes of the meeting three weeks ago, Fed officials decided to begin reducing the central bank’s stockpile of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities by around $95 billion each month beginning in May. This is faster than some investors expected and about double the rate at which the Fed reduced its balance sheet the last time.

Also Read| Trending Stocks: Zee, Uma Exports, Titan, HDFC Bank and others in news today

At the meeting, the Fed raised its benchmark short-term rate by a quarter percentage point, the first increase in three years. The minutes showed many Fed officials wanted to hike rates by an even bigger margin last month, and they still saw “one or more” such supersized increases potentially coming at future meetings.

Also Read| US Premarket: Twitter, Spirit Airlines and other stocks making biggest moves

Communications companies, retailers and others that rely on direct consumer spending also weighed heavily on the index. Amazon fell 3.2% and Facebook parent Meta fell 3.7%.

The S&P 500 ended down 43.97 points to 4,481.15. The Dow slid 144.67 points to 34,496.51, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 315.35 points to 13,888.82. Smaller company stocks also fell, sending the Russell 2000 index down 29.11 points, or 1.4%, to 2,016.94.

Also Read| US Stock Market: DJIA, S&P500 and Nasdaq turns red in early trade on Wednesday

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.61% after the release of the minutes. It had been at 2.59% earlier in the day, up from 2.54% late Tuesday. The yield, which is used to set interest rates on mortgages and many other kinds of loans, is the highest it’s been in three years.

Also Read| Invesco to sell 7.8% stake in Zee Entertainment via a block deal

Traders are now pricing in a nearly 77% probability the Fed will raise its key overnight rate by half a percentage point at its next meeting in May. That’s double the usual amount and something the Fed hasn’t done since 2000.

Also Read| BSNL plans to install over 1 lakh towers to provide 4G across India

U.S. benchmark crude oil prices fell 5.6% Wednesday, but are more than 30% higher for the year. That has pushed gasoline prices higher, putting more stress on shipping costs, prices for goods and consumers’ wallets.

Also Read| RBI to delay first repo rate hike for at least four months: Report

European governments have resisted appeals to boycott Russian gas, Putin’s biggest export earner, due to the possible impact on their economies.

Also Read| SpaceX, Tesla and now Twitter: The many businesses of Elon Musk

Wednesday ended up being a mostly quiet day for company news ahead of the latest round of corporate earnings reports. JetBlue Airways fell 8.7% after offering to buy rival budget airline Spirit for $3.6 billion and break up a plan for Spirit to merge with Frontier Airlines. Spirit fell 2.4%.