Stocks fell sharply Thursday after new data showed retail sales fell more than expected in November, raising fears that the Federal Reserve’s relentless interest rate hikes are tipping the economy into a recession.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 612 points, or 1.82%. The S&P 500 dropped 1.94%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 2.3%.
The sell-off was broad-based with only 27 stocks in the S&P 500 trading in positive territory. Communication services stocks were among the biggest decliners, with shares of Western Digital dropping more than 6%.
Shares of Netflix fell more than 7% following a Digiday report that the streaming firm is offering to return money to advertisers after missing viewership targets.
Meanwhile, Treasury yields declined after the latest Fed policy update, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note falling below 3.5%.
Those moves follow a disappointing retail sales report that suggested inflation is…
