New York - US stocks fell sharply on Wednesday, with losses deepening after the US Federal Reserve trimmed its monetary stimulus for the second month in a row.
At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 183.03 points (1.15%) to 15,745.53.
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 18.18 (1.01%) to 1,774.32, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index declined 46.53 (1.14%) to 4,051.43.
US stocks were in negative territory all day, but those losses increased after the Fed announced, two hours before the markets closed, that it will reduce asset purchases by another $10bn in February to $65bn, a decision that was widely expected.
"People are edgy," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital.
Cardillo said investors were anxious primarily because of the uncertain outlook on emerging-market economies. He said the Fed's move, as well as a mixed bag of earnings reports, were smaller factors in the sell-off.