Wall Street sent Wednesday’s trading session into the red as investors digested the day’s data, which renewed fears of a recession.

Traders’ attention was also focused on the US Federal Reserve’s report on the state of the economy, published earlier in the day.

The blue-chip benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average erased 1.81% of its value, falling to 33,296.96 points.

The broad gauge S&P 500 fell 1.56% to close at 3,928.86, its lowest since Dec. 15.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.24% to 10,957.01, snapping a seven-day rally.

On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve published its report on the state of the economy, known as the “Beige Book”. It became clear from him that there are expectations that sales prices in the country will slow down this year.

On the monetary policy front, central bankers are considering further slowing the pace of monetary tightening after the Fed last month raised interest rates by half a percentage point to a range of 4.25-4.5%, slowing the pace of tightening after four consecutive moves of 75 basis points (bp).

US retail sales in December recorded their biggest drop in a year, it was revealed earlier in the day. A separate report showed that US job vacancies rose by 223,000 last month, while the unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent.

Earlier, St. Louis Federal Reserve Governor James Bullard commented during the World Economic Forum in Davos that interest rates are almost in what could be called growth-limiting territory, but not yet.

“Monetary policy should remain tight in 2023 as the disinflationary process unfolds,” Bullard added, forecasting a range for the federal funds rate between 5.25-5.5 percent by the end of this year. The department’s median forecasts are for a peak of 5-5.25% in 2023, which will remain at this level until 2024.

European Brent crude fell 1.37% to $84.74 per barrel, and American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 1.12% to $79.28 per barrel.

Gold fell 0.23% to $1,905.5 an ounce. The yield on the 10-year US bond reached a level of 3.373%.