NEW YORK, New York -- U.S stock markets ignored gains in Asia and Europe and fell across the board Thursday.
After two days of declines and global moves to hike official interest rates, investors sold U.S. stocks off, as well as a sudden rise in U.S. Treasury yields. The U.S. dollar made a lot of gains, reversing earlier losses in Asia and Europe.
On Thursday, investors were confident that the U.S. Federal Reserve will be next.
Mona Mahajan, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones, told Reuters on Thursday that all systems are going for the Fed to move pretty aggressively. The Nasdaq Composite was worst affected, sinking 292.51 points or 2.14 percent to 13,351. The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 54.00 points or 1.21 percent to 4,392. The Dow Jones industrials declined by 113.36 points or 0.33 percent to 34,451. The euro was divested on foreign exchange markets. The EU unit dropped to 1.0828 by the New York close Thursday after hurdling the 1.0900 level earlier in the day.
The British pound fell to 1.3076. The Swiss franc fell to 0.9425.
The Australian dollar was sold to 0.7415. The New Zealand dollar fell to 0.6788.
The CAC 40 in Paris, France climbed 0.62 percent over the course of the day. In Germany, the Dax increased by 0.72 percent. The FTSE 100 gained 0.47 percent in London.
The Hang Seng rose 123.51 points or 0.58 percent to close Thursday at 21,497 in Hong Kong. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 advanced 328.51 points or 1.22 percent to 27,172. The Australian All Ordinaries gained 50.20 points or 0.65 percent to 7,822. South Korea's Kospi Composite was up 0.22 of a point or 0.01 percent to 2,716, according to South Korea's Kospi Composite. In New Zealand, the S&P NZX 50 climbed 16.58 points or 0.14 percent to 11,891.