Wall Street drops as Fed brings forward rate-rise forecast

All three main Wall Street indexes dropped on Wednesday in the minutes after the U.S. Federal Reserve published a statement following its latest policy meeting, in which it brought forward its projections for the first post-pandemic interest rate hikes into 2023.

The central bank cited an improved health situation. It also dropped a longstanding reference that the crisis was weighing on the economy.

By 2:07 p.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 217.84 points, or 0.64%, at 34,081.49, the S&P 500 lost 23.67 points, or 0.56%, to 4,222.92 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 72.85 points, or 0.52%, to 14,000.01.