Global stock markets welcome "Black Thursday"! The Federal Reserve is not just hawkish, but even more hawkish.

On the day of the Federal Reserve's decision, global stock markets experienced a synchronized sharp decline. Several European indices fell by more than 1%, the Nikkei index fell by 1.7%, and the Hong Kong and Singapore markets also plummeted.

In addition, before the U.S. stock market opened, Nasdaq futures fell by more than 1%, the S&P 500 index fell by 0.78%, and the fear index surged by 4.7%, moving away from the bottom range.

On September 20th local time, the latest minutes of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting showed that the Fed decided to slow down the pace of interest rate hikes in September and continue to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate between 5.25% and 5.50%.

Federal Reserve Chairman Powell stated in a press conference after the meeting that there is still a long way to go in controlling inflation, and the Fed will pay attention to the risks that high inflation brings to the United States in the coming time. Since March 2022, the Fed has raised interest rates intensively 11 times to curb high inflation, raising rates from near zero to 5.25% to 5.5%, reaching the highest level in 22 years.