Wall Street stocks were hammered nearly across the board yesterday as inflation worries sparked a sell-off ahead of a speech by the Federal Reserve chairman Mr Alan Greenspan.
Cash flew to the sidelines as economic numbers, comments from a central banker and the Fed's Beige Book summary of the economy ratcheted up fears of a big increase in interest rates.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 250.99 points, or 2.34 per cent, at 10,480.13.
The Nasdaq composite index lost 78.14 points, or 2.06 percent, to 3,707.31, rebounding in the final minutes of trading from a drop of 4.75 per cent. Measures of the wider market also suffered with the Standard & Poor's 500 index down 31.19 points, or 2.16 per cent, to 1,415.10.
The 30-year bond was off 1-17/32 with the yield rising to 6.12 per cent from Tuesday's close of 6.02 per cent. The U.S. Treasury 10-year note fell 23/32, with the yield rising to 6.40 percent from Tuesday's close of 6.30 per cent.
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