BOSTON, Jan 7 ― Wall Street's headache over the potential of a relatively fast pullback from stimulus by the US Federal Reserve lingered yesterday as stocks sold off again and government bond yields mostly marched higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 170.64 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 36,236.47, the S&P 500 lost 4.53 points, or 0.10 per cent, to 4,696.05 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 19.31 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 15,080.87.

Stocks fell sharply in Asia and Europe too after Wall Street's technology-heavy Nasdaq index plunged more than 3 per cent on Wednesday.

Minutes released on Wednesday from the Fed's December meeting had shown that a tight jobs market and unrelenting inflation could require the US central bank to raise rates sooner than expected and begin reducing its overall asset holdings.

The Fed news “took stock markets unawares this week, creating a level of discomfort with more speculative stocks,” analyst Christopher Whalen of Whalen Global Advisors LLC wrote in a note Thursday.

As stocks struggled, US Treasury yields on most maturities rose again on Thursday as investors fretted over the Fed's more hawkish stance, surging inflation and a deluge of supply.

Benchmark 10-year yields rose to 1.7530 per cent, the highest since March 2021, and were last up slightly on the day to 1.7246 per cent. US 2-year yields, which track near-term rate expectations, rose to the highest since early March 2020, the start of the global spread of Covid-19, at 0.8736 per cent.

Adding to the worries on Thursday was data from the US Labour Department showing an increase in the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week, and the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) noting that non-manufacturing activity fell in December.

“Despite the weaker than expected ISM today, the market continued to increase how much it is pricing for the Fed to hike in 2022 and 2023 ― now more than 5.5 hikes is priced before the end of 2023,” Nancy Davis, founder of Quadratic Capital Management in Greenwich, Connecticut, said in an email.

Investors will now look ahead to a key US jobs report today, which will follow new euro zone inflation data that the European Central Bank will watch closely.

The dollar continued its climb towards a 14-month high, after riding the tailwind of the Fed minutes. The dollar index last gained 0.105 per cent, with the euro down 0.19 per cent at US$1.1291 (RM4.76).

Cryptocurrencies were among the hardest hit in the overnight market selloff, with bitcoin falling more than 5 per cent. It last traded at around US$43,164, down 0.63 per cent on the day.

Gold prices slid to a two-week low yesterday, pressured by rallying US Treasury yields.

Spot gold dropped 1.2 per cent to US$1,788.22 an ounce. US gold futures fell 2.1 per cent to US$1,787.10 an ounce.

In commodity markets, oil prices rose sharply yesterday, extending their new year's rally, on escalating unrest in Opec+ oil producer Kazakhstan and supply outages in Libya.

US crude rose 2.1 per cent to US$79.50 per barrel and Brent was at US$81.99, up 1.5 per cent on the day. ― Reuters