Wall Street drops as inflation worries rise
STORY: U.S. stocks dropped on Friday as inflation worries fueled fears the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes could lead to an economic recession.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid more than 1.3 percent. The S&P 500 fell nearly 2.4 percent. And the Nasdaq plummeted just over three percent.
It's been a volatile week for markets, and Friday was no exception.
Equities opened higher, extending Thursday's gains, before sharply reversing course.
"So in today's movement we're seeing the typical action from a bear market."
Robert Schein is the chief investment officer for Blanke Schein Wealth Management. He said the volatility is likely to continue and that occasional upswings are opportunities to sell and diversify.
"When you're in a bear market you'll get bear market rallies of 500 points up, to 1000 points up. Take those opportunities to strategically rebalance. By that I mean, you're going to trim what's up. Even though you own it, you shouldn't own that much. And then take advantage of that cash and re-deploy it, to diversify your portfolio to make it more durable."
Despite Friday's slump, some areas saw improvement. Banks had a strong day as quarterly results lifted shares of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo.
UnitedHealth was one of the few Dow components to eke out a gain of just under half a percent.
But dragging down the Nasdaq, again, was Tesla. Shares nosedived more than seven-and-a-half percent following media reports that the electric vehicle maker has put on hold plans to launch battery cell production at its plant outside Berlin due to technical issues.
