international stock indexes dropped and us equity futures sold off as investors worried about the speed with which the us federal reserve would move to lift interest rates and otherwise tighten monetary policy the global downswing followed the latest in a series of choppy trading sessions for us stocks which registered big intraday gains wednesday only to pull back sharply markets have been buffeted by a series of concerns about inflation and interest rates how the omicron variant will affect the course of the covid19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions over ukraine