Wall Street ends lower as taper acceleration worries pile onto virus angst

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 652.22 points, or 1.86%, to 34,483.72

Wall Street's main indexes closed lower on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the US central bank would consider speeding up its withdrawal of bond purchases as inflation risks increase, piling pressure onto a market already nervous about the latest COVID-19 variant.

In a testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Powell indicated that he no longer considers high inflation as "transitory" and that the Fed would revisit the timeline for scaling back its bond buying program at its next meeting in two weeks.

"Powell's comments threw a monkey in the wrench in market thinking in terms of potential taper