Dow Jones drops nearly 1,000 points

• US stocks fell on Friday, with the Dow recording its fourth consecutive week of losses as investors braced for a rapid hike in interest rates.
• “I would say 50 basis points will be on the table for the May meeting,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said in a debate with the International Monetary Fund on Thursday.
• As the Fed tries to tame inflation, first-quarter results continue to beat estimates of revenue and earnings.

US stocks fell on Friday, with the Dow Jones down nearly 1,000 points as investors grappled with fresh comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggesting further interest rate hikes are ahead.

“I would say 50 basis points will be on the table for the May meeting,” Powell said in a discussion with the International Monetary Fund on Thursday, as the Fed struggles to contain inflation that has jumped to 40-year highs in recent months.

Powell’s idea of ​​a 50 basis point rate hike at his next meeting in May has some analysts now calling for a 75 basis point hike. “75 basis points is the new 25 basis points,” Bank of America said in a note on Friday, considering an interest rate shock likely.

On the week, the Dow finished 1.85% lower, the Standard & Poor’s tumbled 2.7%, and the Nasdaq tumbled 3.8%. The Dow Jones posted its fourth consecutive weekly decline, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 posted their third consecutive weekly decline.

This is where US indices stood at the 4:00pm ET close on Friday:

Despite the downward trend in the stock market, first-quarter corporate earnings continued to beat analyst estimates in both top and bottom line earnings. According to Fundstrat data, of the 95 companies that have reported so far, or 19% of the S&P 500, results have outpaced earnings estimates by an average of 6%. Meanwhile, revenue estimates were affected by an average of 3%.

Cryptocurrencies continue to trade in a sideways range as Bitcoin stays in a range

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. These were the top five performing cryptocurrencies over the past week.

Ukraine announced restrictions on bitcoin purchases on Friday to guard against capital flight as Russia’s war on the country entered a third month. The National Bank of Ukraine is banning bitcoin purchases made with hryvnia and capping foreign currency purchases at $3,300 per month.

The Chinese yuan was on track to post its worst weekly decline since 2015 on Friday, as investors returned to the United States. The offshore yuan, or renminbi, fell 2.4% for the week to 6.53 per dollar, according to Bloomberg data.

China’s oil demand is on track to decline 20% this month, the biggest shock since the early days of COVID, according to a Bloomberg report. This decrease equates to a decrease in crude oil consumption of 1.2 million barrels per day.

West Texas Intermediate crude fell as much as 1.92% to $101.80 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, fell 1.85% to $106.33.

Bitcoin fell 2.51% to $39,495. Ether prices fell 1.03% to $2,963.

Gold fell 0.70% to $1,934.60 an ounce. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell nearly two basis points to less than 2.90%.