Stocks were lower at the halfway point Thursday in volatile trading, with the Dow Industrials down more than 1,000 points over two days. The S&P 500 fell more than a percent, while the Nasdaq fared slightly better.
The tech-heavy index saw fractional declines a day after a rout in tech stocks marked the worst market drop in eight months. Major tech companies like Microsoft ($MSFT), Facebook ($FB), and Alphabet ($GOOGL) had rebounded from Wednesday's losses with slight gains.
The continued sell-off was due in part to concerns about tightening monetary policy. President Trump has broken from tradition and repeatedly criticized the Fed for raising interest rates. He continued to attack Fed Chair Jerome Powell Thursday, saying he was "disappointed" in "far too stringent" rate hike decisions.
Earlier in the day, stocks briefly turned positive before extending their losses.
Union leaders and Hollywood studios reached a tentative agreement Sunday to end a historic screenwriters strike after nearly five months, though no deal is yet in the works for striking actors.
The Week's Top Stories is a guided tour through the biggest market stories of the week, from winning stocks to brutal dips to the facts and forecasts generating buzz on Wall Street. This week we're highlighting, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, the UAW strike, Fox Corp. and News Corp. shake-up, interest rate decision, and Cisco scooping up Splunk.
