US stocks end sharply lower; Middle East turmoil fans inflation fear

STORY: Wall Street's main indexes ended sharply lower on Friday, with the Dow dropping nearly one percent, the S&P 500 falling one-and-a-half percent to close at it lowest level in six months, and the Nasdaq shedding two percent, nearing correction territory.The small-cap Russell 2000 also plummeted, spiraling two-and-a-quarter percent, to confirm it is in a correction. Investors' worries about inflation deepened as the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran entered its fourth week, with no signs of easing.Shana Orczyk Sissel is founder and CEO of Banríon Capital Management."I don't know that volatility is going to start to subside anytime soon. The headlines continue to be fairly concerning. Inflation is higher, oil is higher. Stress on the U.S. consumer has consequences. And I think this is a good reminder to investors who are fairly new to the game, aka 20 years or less in the market, that we were experiencing an unusual period for investors of low volatility and strong markets. That is not the norm."Wall Street's most valuable companies declined, with Nvidia and Tesla losing over 3% each. Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Microsoft all lost about 2%.Shares of Super Micro Computer plunged more than 33% after three people associated with the AI server maker were charged with smuggling at least $2.5 billion of AI technology to China. Rival Dell closed slightly higher.Meanwhile, just two days after the U.S. Federal Reserve projected one rate cut this year, rate futures on Friday showed the Fed is more likely to raise interest rates than cut them by the end of 2026, according to CME's FedWatch tool.