US stocks drop on rate hike jitters, weak earnings

US stocks plunged on Friday as the latest raft of corporate earnings and the prospect of rising rates spurred a wave of selling.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 981.36 points, or 2.82%, to 33,811.40. The S&P500 index was down 121.88 points, or 2.77%, to 4,271.78. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped by 335.36 points, or 2.55%, to 12,839.29. Friday's loss was the biggest for the Dow since 28 October 2020.

The US share market finished session steep lower on Friday, 22 April 2022, with the major averages slumping to their worst closing levels in over a month, due to increased certainty around aggressive near-term interest rate rises and disappointing earnings news from HCA Healthcare and Intuitive Surgical Inc.

Concerns about risks from interest rate hikes continued to reverberate after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's hawkish pivot on Thursday, where he backed moving more quickly to combat inflation and said a 50-basis-point increase would be "on the table" when the Fed meets in May.

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