Stocks finished sharply lower Thursday, while oil prices tumbled and Treasury bond yields retreated, as investors looked to round out the worst quarterly performance for stocks since the start of the pandemic two years ago.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 550 points, or 1.56% , to 34,678, while the S&P 500 fell 1.57%, and the tech-focused Nasdaq lost of 1.54%.
With the S&P 500 down 3.44% for the year-to-date, bond traders tracking moves in the U.S. Treasury yield curve that indicate potential recession and the White House unveiling an historic release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to tame record-high energy prices, market fundamentals -- and the broader domestic economy -- were weak heading into final trading day of the first quarter.
The President authorized the release of 180 million barrels from the SPR, spread over six months, in order to bring down global crude prices and ease the supply hit from Russia's war on Ukraine.
The move marks the third release from the SPR in six months, and the largest-ever from the nation's emergency stockpile, which sits at the lowest levels since 2002, according to Energy Department data published Wednesday.
WTI crude futures for May delivery were marked $7.10 lower from Wednesday's close at $100.70 per barrel in overnight trading, while Brent contracts for the same month, the global pricing benchmark, fell $5.54 to trade at $107.90 per barrel.
The Atlanta Fed's GDPNow forecasting tool suggests first-quarter growth will slow to just under 1%, from its final fourth-quarter pace of around 7%, as the Federal Reserve aggressively signals interest rate increases, and the reduction of its $9 trillion balance sheet, as it fights the worst inflation in forty years.
Bond markets were closely tracking data from the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the core PCE Price index, which rose to the fastest pace in four decades last month, pegging the gap between 2-year and 10-year Treasury bond yields holding in modest positive territory, at 3 basis points, following a brief inversion earlier this week.
In Europe, the Stoxx 600 fell 0.8% on the final trading day of the quarter as reports suggest Russian troops will re-focus their invasion of Ukraine on the southeast region of Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have held loose control since being installed by President Vladimir Putin in 2014.
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) posted stronger-than-expected second quarter earnings, thanks in part to solid U.S. pharmacy sales, but its shares were marked 5.7% lower as it only confirmed its full-year profit guidance.
In tech, Tesla (TSLA) shares edged 1.50% lower amid as reports suggest the clean-energy carmaker will likely extend the closure of its Shanghai gigafactory as China's biggest city remains on Covid lockdown.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fell 8.3% after analysts at Barclays downgraded the chipmaker, and slashed their price target on the stock, citing increasing competition in key markets.
