US equity markets retreated after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell failed to reassure investors that the central bank would keep surging bond yields and inflation expectations in check – Dow settled -346-points or -1.11% lower (at 30,924.14) after tumbling as much as -700-points earlier in the session. Home Depot Inc (down -2.5%) and Intel Corp (-2.62%) were among the biggest drags on the index. The broader S&P500 fell -1.34% (to 3,768.47), paring an earlier -2.5% decline. Information Technology (down 2.26%), Materials (-2.06%) and Consumer Discretionary (-2.02%) all fell over >2% and led nine of the eleven primary sectors lower. Energy remained atop the primary sector leaderboard with a +2.47% gain. Exxon Mobil Corp rose +3.87% after the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the energy major, Darren Woods, reiterated the company’s commitment to its dividend. Apple Inc (down -1.58%), Tesla Inc (-4.86%) and PayPal Holdings Inc (-6.27%) were among the largest individual drags on the index. Both the Dow and S&P500 logged their first settlement below their respective 50-day moving averages (30,944.98 and 3,818.61) in over a month The Nasdaq shed -2.11% and fell into negative territory for the calendar year-to-date (down -1.28%). The technology-centric benchmark settled -9.7% below its record closing high on 12 February and fell into correction territory on an intraday basis, down more than 10% from its most recent 52-week high. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 lost -2.76%.