us stocks ended sharply lower thursday with the sp 500 sliding to another 2022 low while heavy losses for apple inc and other techrelated stocks helped to set the tone as equities undid a bounce seen the previous session stocks erased gains from wednesday when the dow rose 549 points for its largest percentagepoint increase since july while the sp 500 and nasdaq saw their biggest gains in more than a month a batch of economic data that reinforced expectations the federal reserve will continue with its aggressive pace of rate hikes set the tone analysts said while a sharp selloff across techrelated shares amplified the damage the latest update to secondquarter gdp figures confirmed that the us economy shrank at an annualized clip of 06 in the second quarter however a weekly report on us jobless benefit claims revealed that the number of americans initially applying for unemployment benefits fell by 16000 to 193000 in the week ended sept 24 the lowest level since april the jobless claims data helped to weigh on stocks by emboldening a view that the fed will stick with its plans to continue raising interest rates i think well see rates continue to increase here in the us since were not yet in restrictive territory and that rate cuts wont come as easily or as soon as the market expects michael wang ceo and founder of prometheus alternative investments told marketwatch expect further tightening from central banks including the fed as markets look for stability and transparency for the rest of the year which will have an impact on the upcoming earnings season investors will be watching if fed chair jerome powell and the fed stick to their guns on raising rates regardless of the short term impact to get inflation under control he said treasury yields rebounded putting pressure on stocks a pullback in global yields following the bank of englands decision to resume its bondbuying program in an effort to stabilize the countrys bond market was credited with giving stocks room to bounce on wednesday apple incaapl a dow component was blamed for helping to exacerbate the thursday weakness in stocks while also contributing heavily to the nasdaqs decline shares fell 49 after bank of america analyst downgraded the stock to neutral from buy thursday writing that demand trends could worsen heading into the new fiscal year megacap tech stocks got hit hard after apple was delivered an extraordinarily rare downgrade by bank of america the downgrade emphasized the risk of weaker services and product demand given the current macro environment said edward moya senior market analyst at oanda in a note facebook parent meta platforms inc meta dropped 37 after a news reports said the company was planning a hiring freeze and restructuring metas outlook is in shambles as they are looking at a terrible macro backdrop that will lead to falling ad rev and a metaverse bet that does not seem like it will pan out moya said the tech rout saw nearly a fifth of the sp 500 hit 52week lows during thursdays session cleveland fed president loretta mester said in an interview on cnbc that the interest rates in the us havent reached restrictive territory yet and that the fed has yet to reach a point where it should consider pausing rate hikes st louis fed president james bullard defended the fed from claims its policy of aggressive interestrate hikes is creating impossible conditions for foreign central banks seefed rate hikes were no surprise to foreign central banks bullard says san francisco fed president mary daly was scheduled to deliver remarks at an event at 445 pm et  joseph adinolfi and jamie chisholm contributed to this article