U.S. stocks suffered the biggest two-day retreat in three months, as investors weighed the impact of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate increase and the prospects for slowing global growth.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 360 points, as Apple Inc., Walt Disney Co. and Boeing Co. fell at least 2.7 percent. Banks, technology and consumer companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index all lost more than 1.4 percent to pace a broad selloff.
The S&P 500 fell 1.8 percent to 2,005.55 at 4 p.m. in New York, closing at its lowest since Oct. 14. The gauge’s slide today wiped out a weekly gain of as much as 3 percent. The Dow also sank to a two-month low, down 367.29 points, or 2.1 percent, to 17,128.55. It was its biggest drop in more than three months. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.6 percent.
Equities extended declines in the final minutes of trading amid the quarterly event known as quadruple witching, when futures and options contracts on indexes and individual stocks expire. More than 12 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges Friday, 71 percent above the three-month average and the most since the height of the summer selloff on Aug. 24.
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