Stocks continue to slide on fears over the Fed's rate hike

Stocks continued a sell-off on Friday, capping a volatile week in U.S. markets as fears spread that U.S. interest rate hikes to fight inflation might stall economic growth.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 468 points, or 1.4%, to 32,529 in early trading, adding to Thursday's losses of 3.1%. Other indices also lost ground in Friday morning trading, with the S&P 500 shedding 1.7% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropping 2.4%.

Investors are worried about whether the Federal Reserve, which raised its key interest rate by a half percentage point on Wednesday, can cool inflation without tipping the U.S. economy into recession. Traders were encouraged by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's comment that the Fed wasn't considering even bigger increases, but only briefly.