Dow falls 144 points as Federal Reserve officials maintain hawkish stance

April 6 (UPI) -- U.S. markets fell for the second consecutive day on Wednesday as Federal Reserve officials continued to express a desire to tighten the central bank's monetary policy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 144.67 points, or 0.42%, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.97% and the Nasdaq Composite closed down 2.22%.

The Fed on Wednesday shared minutes from its March meeting, in which officials "generally agreed" the central bank should shrink its balance sheet by $95 billion per month.

Markets gave up early gains Tuesday and hit session lows in the final hour of trading after Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said the Fed must "rapidly" shrink its balance sheet to battle rising inflation and once again hit session lows Wednesday after the Fed released its minutes.

"It was a warning to anyone who thinks that the Fed is going to be more dovish in their fight against inflation," Quincy Krosby, chief equity strategist at LPL Financial, according to CNBC. "Their message is, 'You're wrong.'"

Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker said Wednesday he iwas "acutely concerned" about rising inflation and said he expects "a series of deliberate, methodical hikes as the year continues and the data evolve."

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said Tuesday that the case for a 50 basis-point interest rate hike -- twice the Fed's typical per-meeting increase -- "has grown."

The 10-year treasury yield climbed above 2.65% to its highest level since May 2019 after ending Monday at 2.4%.

Tech stocks suffered amid the surge in yields with Tesla stock dropping 4.17%, Microsoft falling 3.66%, Amazon declining 3.23% and Apple sliding 1.85%.