Finance

Major equity indices slid significantly in their return from the holiday weekend, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping over 600 points to mark its worst session in nearly three weeks. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite similarly finished in the red as investors reassessed economic risks ahead of key inflation reports. The inflationary pressure from rising oil has prompted traders to boost the odds of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike at the upcoming policy meeting.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced an aggressive expansion of its liquidity support buyback operations targeting longer-dated nominal coupon securities. Effective immediately, the maximum purchasing size will double from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation for the 10-year to 30-year sectors. This structural shift is intended to bolster financial market stability and provide more robust liquidity in longer-term government debt sectors through the remainder of the current refunding quarter.

Bitcoin prices dipped slightly toward the $78,500 level amid broader financial market volatility and escalating geopolitical tensions. The digital asset ecosystem faced unique compliance headwinds following the U.S. Treasury's implementation of secondary sanctions targeting Iranian entities. To avoid losing critical access to the domestic financial framework, multiple international cryptocurrency exchanges proactively suspended several general licenses and froze suspected accounts linked to the region.