Good afternoon.
Markets slide, the Federal Reserve raises interest rates by 0.5%, and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is arrested.
Let's dive in.
Markets
Here are today's market moves:
What Happened?
U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve announced its policy decision.
The Fed raised interest rates by half a percentage point and signaled increases were likely to continue next year.
Why did markets fall? Although a half-point rate hike was widely expected, Fed officials signaled they see interest rates rising to 5.1% in 2023, up from previous estimates of 4.6%.
The crypto market was flat on Wednesday, with Bitcoin trading near $18k. Federal prosecutors on Tuesday called FTX "one of the biggest financial frauds in American history."
Catch Up
Inflation cools in November. The Consumer Price Index rose 7.1% in the year ending in November, down from 7.7% the prior month.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas at the request of the US government.
The S&P 500 is down 16.7% in 2022, on track for its worst performance since the 2008 financial crisis.