U.S. stocks close lower Wednesday as Powell hits March rate cut expectations

U.S. stocks closed lower on Wednesday as the three major stock indexes came under pressure as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell hit expectations for a March rate cut. The Dow closed initially down 300 points, or 0.83 per cent, while the S&P 500 fell 1.6 per cent and the Nasdaq lost 2.2 per cent. Google C (GOOG.O) closed down 7.3% and AMD (AMD.O) fell 2.6%. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index closed down a modest 0.09 per cent.