a brutal year for us stocks is drawing to a close with little conviction on wall street that the outlook is brightening anytime soon after charting a rebound since october on speculation the federal reserve is nearing the end of its most aggressive rate hikes in decades stock prices have retreated over the past two weeks on renewed concern that the tighter monetary policy will smother economic growth through the first half of next year the sp 500 has lost nearly 20 this year ratesensitive growth stocks have been hit even harder driving the nasdaq 100 down more than 30