US stockmarkets suffer worst month in over two years

First monthly drop since March

A late slump in US stocks on Wednesday driven by continued fears of faster-than-anticipated rate hikes caused the Dow Jones and S&P 500 to suffer their worst month since January 2016.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones were down 1.1% and 1.5% respectively by market close on Wednesday, causing the S&P 500 to drop 3.9% in February marking its first monthly drop since March 2017, thereby ending a market rally last seen between March 1958 and January 1959. With the Dow Jones falling 4.3% for February, this marks the end of one of the longest winning streaks in US market history. The fall was largely driven by new Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's unexpectedly hawkish tone on Tuesday where he presented an upbeat picture of the US economy, opening up the option for more th...