Recession fears mounted Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve slowed the pace of interest-rate hikes but forecasted a higher peak rate, pushing three benchmark indexes sharply lower, but well off their session lows in the final hour of trade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 714 points, or 2.1%, to 33,248, on track to book its biggest daily decline in over three months. The S&P 500 slumped 2.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped nearly 3%, both heading for their worst days since September. Central banks in Europe on Thursday followed the Fed in slowing the pace of interest rate increases. The European Central Bank and Bank of England hiked their key lending rates by 50 basis points, but policy makers at the ECB emphasized that market participants should prepare for a series of rate hikes to come.
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