NEW YORK—Wall Street’s major indexes all slid more than 2 percent on Dec. 17, with the benchmark S&P 500 closing at its lowest in 14 months, on concerns about slowing economic growth ahead of a highly anticipated decision from the Federal Reserve this week on the course of U.S. interest-rate hikes.
The S&P 500 hit its lowest since October 2017 to breach lows reached during its sell-off in February, having wiped out about $3.4 trillion of market value since late September. The small-cap Russell 2000 index confirmed a bear market, having fallen more than 20 percent from its Aug. 31 closing high.