Dow drops 1,000 points on renewed inflation fears

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,100 points, or 3.4%, to 31,536 as of 2 p.m. EST. The S&P 500 lost 3.9% and the Nasdaq fell 4.5%.

The weak reports stoked concerns that red-hot inflation is squeezing a wide range of businesses and could cut deeper into their profits. They also coincide with an increasingly hawkish posture from the Federal Reserve, with chairman Jerome Powell saying on Tuesday that the bank could consider “moving more aggressively” to raise rates if inflation doesn’t fall quickly.