The Dow Jones Industrials slumped 320.01 points, to break for lunch at 32,670.11.
The S&P 500 dropped 45.47 points, or 1.1%, to 4,086.57
The NASDAQ Composite lost 136.08 points, or 1.1%, to 11,945.31.
Weighing on investor sentiment, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon on Wednesday said the economy is headed for a “hurricane.”
“You better brace yourself,” Dimon said at a financial conference. “JPMorgan is bracing ourselves and we’re going to be very conservative with our balance sheet.”
Fresh economic data released Wednesday morning showed job openings declined sharply in April.
Materials names typically linked to the economic cycle were among the biggest laggards on the S&P 500. Albemarle dropped more than 9% and Mosaic shed about 6%.
Travel names also struggled Wednesday. Boeing was the worst decliner on the Dow, down about 3%. On the S&P 500, Norwegian Cruise Line fell around 6% and Delta Air Lines eased more than 4%.
On the upside, Salesforce surged more than 11% after the company’s first-quarter results topped expectations.
Traders in May pored over a raft of mixed quarterly results that included some big misses from bellwether names like Walmart.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve at the start of May hiked rates by 50 basis points to quell an inflationary surge not seen in decades.
The first day of June marks the start of the Fed’s plan to reduce its balance sheet, which ballooned to nearly $9 trillion during the COVID pandemic.
Treasury prices crumbled, raising yields to 2.93% from Tuesday’s 2.86%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices jumped $1.24 to $115.91 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slid $2.60 to $1,840.10 U.S. an ounce.