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Wall Street ended lower on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 extending its losing streak to four sessions, as skittish investors fretted over Federal Reserve rate hikes and further talk of a looming recession.

Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) dragged down markets, with its shares sliding 6.8% following reports that European Union regulators have ruled the company should not require users to agree to personalized ads based on their digital activity.

However, technology names generally suffered as investors applied caution toward high-growth companies whose performance would be sluggish in a challenging economy. Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) fell between 2.5% and 3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was pulled lower for a third straight session.

Most of the 11 major S&P sectors declined, with energy and communications services (.SPLRCL) joining technology (.SPLRCT) as leading laggards. Utilities (.SPLRCU), a defensive sector often preferred during times of economic uncertainty, was the only exception, gaining 0.7%.

Future economic growth prospects were in focus on Tuesday following comments from financial titans pointing toward uncertain times ahead.

Bank of America Corp’s (BAC.N) chief executive predicted three quarters of mild negative growth next year, while JPMorgan Chase and Co’s (JPM.N) CEO Jamie Dimon said inflation will erode consumer spending power and that a mild to more pronounced recession was likely ahead.

Their comments came on the heels of recent views from BlackRock and others that believe the U.S. Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary tightening to combat stubbornly high price rises could induce an economic downturn in 2023.

“The market is very reactive right now,” said David Sadkin, president at Bel Air Investment Advisors.

He noted that, while markets traditionally reflect the future, right now they are moving up and down based on the latest headlines.

Fears about economic growth come amid a re-evaluation by traders of what path future interest rate hikes will take, following strong data on jobs and the services sector in recent days.

Money market bets are pointing to a 91% chance that the U.S. central bank might raise rates by 50 basis points at its Dec. 13-14 policy meeting, with rates expected to peak at 4.98% in May 2023, up from 4.92% estimated on Monday before service-sector data was released.

The S&P 500 rallied 13.8% in October and November on hopes of smaller rate hikes and better-than-expected earnings, although such Fed expectations could be undermined by further data releases, including producer prices due out on Friday.

“The market got ahead of itself at the end of November, but then we got some good economic data, so people are re-evaluating what the Fed is going to do next week,” said Bel Air’s Sadkin.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 350.76 points, or 1.03%, to close at 33,596.34, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 57.58 points, or 1.44%, to finish at 3,941.26 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 225.05 points, or 2%, to end on 11,014.89.

Jitters on the direction of global growth have also weighed on oil prices, with U.S. crude slipping to levels last seen in January, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted supply markets. The energy sector (.SPNY) fell 2.7% on Tuesday.

Banks are among the most sensitive stocks to an economic downturn, as they potentially face negative effects from bad loans or slowing loan growth. The S&P banks index (.SPXBK) slipped 1.4% to its lowest close since Oct. 21.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 11.01 billion shares, in line with the average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

The S&P 500 posted three new 52-week highs and nine new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 52 new highs and 262 new lows.

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Donald Trump’s real estate company was convicted on Tuesday of carrying out a 15-year-long criminal scheme to defraud tax authorities, adding to the legal woes facing the former U.S. president as he campaigns for the office again in 2024.

The Trump Organization – which operates hotels, golf courses, and other real estate around the world – faces up to $1.6 million in fines following the guilty verdicts by a jury on all charges the company faced.

Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, told reporters the company would appeal.

Futerfas said the law allowing the company to be found guilty if executives took criminal acts “in behalf of” the company was vague.

“It was central to the case,” Futerfas said.

The exact amount of the fines will be determined by the judge overseeing the trial in New York State court. The jury deliberated for a total of about 12 hours. Following the verdict, the judge set a sentencing date of Jan. 13.

The company had pleaded not guilty. Trump himself was not charged in the case.

While the fine is not expected to be material for a company of the Trump Organization’s size, the conviction could complicate its ability to do business by spooking lenders and partners.

The case centered on charges that the company paid personal expenses like free rent and car leases for top executives including former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg without reporting the income, and paid them bonuses as if they were independent contractors.

“The smorgasbord of benefits is designed to keep its top executives happy and loyal,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told jurors during his closing argument on Friday.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who was in the courtroom for the verdict, said afterwards: “The former president’s companies now stand convicted of crimes. That is consequential.”

“This was a case about lying and cheating. False documents. To the end of evading taxes,” Bragg said.

Republican Trump, who on Nov. 15 announced his third campaign for the presidency, had called the probe a politically motivated “witch hunt.” Both Bragg and his predecessor who brought the charges, Cyrus Vance, are Democrats.

The Trump Organization separately faces a fraud lawsuit brought by New York state Attorney General Letitia James.

Trump himself is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice over his handling of sensitive government documents after he left office in January 2021 and attempts to overturn the November 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Weisselberg, 75, testified as the government’s star witness as part of a plea deal with prosecutors that will allow him to spend no more than five months in jail.

The Trump Organization argued that Weisselberg carried out the scheme to benefit himself. He is on paid leave from the company and testified that he received more than $1 million in salary and bonus payments this year.

“The question here is not whether as a byproduct the company saved some money,” Susan Necheles, a defense lawyer, said in her closing argument on Thursday. “(Weisselberg’s) intent was to benefit himself, not the company.”

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Nov. 19. that his family got “no economic gain from the acts done by the executive.”

Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty in August to concealing $1.76 million in income from tax authorities, testified that Trump himself signed the Christmas bonus checks and personally paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in private school tuition for Weisselberg’s grandchildren.

He also said Trump’s two sons – who took over the company’s operations in 2017 after Trump became president – gave him a raise after they knew about his tax dodge scheme.

“The whole narrative that Donald Trump was blissfully ignorant is just not real,” Steinglass said.

The Trump Organization also sought to argue that Donald Bender, an outside accountant, should have caught and blown the whistle on Weisselberg’s fraud.

The company called Bender as its main witness, but his testimony appeared to backfire when he said he trusted that the information Weisselberg gave him was accurate and that he was under no obligation to investigate further.

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The chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan, on Tuesday said giant companies like Ticketmaster (LYV.N), which faces a tsunami of criticism for problems in selling tickets to a 2023 Taylor Swift tour, can become “too big to care.”

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit, Khan said it was the Justice Department that approved the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation in 2010 and referenced a report that the department had a probe under way.

“There can be concerns that when firms become (large) they can become too big to care,” she added, saying giant firms may feel no need to invest in innovation because they do not face tough competition.

“There’s been public reporting that the Justice Department continues to look at this and I’m sure it’s top of mind for them, given all the incoming that they’re getting,” she added.

Ticketmaster has drawn fresh heat from U.S. lawmakers over how it handled ticket sales for Swift’s first tour in five years.

On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote to Michael Rapino, chief executive of Ticketmaster parent Live Nation, to raise concerns about the chaos in the Taylor Swift ticket sale and to request a briefing for staff on fees, dynamic pricing, ticket availability and transferability and scalping.

There will also be a congressional hearing, likely this month, on the debacle in November when Ticketmaster put tickets on sale for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, and some fans struggled for hours with the ticket sale website.

Last month, U.S. lawmakers pressed the FTC to enforce a 2016 law against ticket scalpers using bots after Ticketmaster blamed the software for troubles selling tickets to Swift’s tour.

Ticketmaster has blamed problems with presale ticketing for the tour on unprecedented demand and an effort to keep out bots run by ticket scalpers.

For her part, Swift has said it was “excruciating” for her to watch fans struggle to secure tickets and that she had been assured that Ticketmaster could handle large demand.

Neither Ticketmaster nor the Justice Department immediately responded to requests for comment.

Khan also said that the FTC was not investigating cryptocurrency firm FTX, whose dramatic collapse sparked fears of contagion and prompted calls for more crypto regulation. read more

FTX founder and former chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, head of its now-defunct trading affiliate, have tapped defense attorneys as U.S. authorities probe the crypto exchange’s collapse, according to a spokesperson for Bankman-Fried and a source familiar with Ellison’s selection.

Bankman-Fried has retained Mark S. Cohen, of Cohen & Gresser, Bankman-Fried’s spokesperson Mark Botnick said in an emailed statement. Cohen could not be reached for comment.

Ellison, who ran trading firm Alameda Research, has hired Washington-based law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr to represent her, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Neither Ellison nor spokespeople for the firm responded to requests for comment.

Regulators around the globe, including in the Bahamas where FTX is based and in the United States, are investigating the role of FTX’s top executives including Bankman-Fried in the firm’s stunning collapse, Reuters has previously reported. The crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy last month after a liquidity crisis that saw at least $1 billion of customer funds vanish.

Prosecutors and regulators have not charged Bankman-Fried or Ellison with a crime. They face civil lawsuits from FTX customers.

David Mills, a professor at Stanford Law School, is consulting on the matter for Bankman-Fried, Botnick said. Mills did not respond to requests for comment. Semafor previously reported Mills’ advisory work for Bankman-Fried.

Cohen, a former assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, recently defended Ghislaine Maxwell in her sex trafficking trial.

Bankman-Fried had previously hired Martin Flumenbaum of law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, but the law firm said last month it was no longer representing him due to conflicts.

A widely-followed Twitter account previously named WilmerHale as Ellison’s counsel.

In recent weeks, U.S. authorities have sought information from investors and potential investors in FTX, according to two sources with knowledge of the requests. Federal prosecutors in New York are asking for details on any communications such firms have had with the crypto firm and its executives, including Bankman-Fried, the sources said. Bloomberg previously reported the information requests.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has been asking for similar information from investors as well, one of the sources said.

Those sources and attorneys, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said that U.S. authorities are likely looking for any evidence of material misrepresentations of information to investors.

Spokespeople for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office and the SEC declined to comment on the information request.

FTX secretly transferred customer funds to its affiliate Alameda Research to fill a shortfall at the crypto trading firm, Reuters has previously reported. The Wall Street Journal has previously reported that Ellison and senior FTX officials knew the crypto exchange had dipped into its customer funds to help Alameda meet liabilities.

Speaking via video link at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit with Andrew Ross Sorkin on Wednesday, Bankman-Fried said he did not knowingly commingle customer funds on FTX with funds at his proprietary trading firm, Alameda Research.

“I didn’t ever try to commit fraud,” Bankman-Fried said, adding that he does not think he has any criminal liability.

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The U.S. Congress may be forced to delay until early 2023 final agreement on funding the government through the end of its fiscal year, instead relying on a stopgap measure to keep the lights on, the top Senate Republican said on Tuesday.

The federal government is currently set to run out of money on Dec. 16 without a vote on either an “omnibus” bill funding the government through Sept. 30, 2023, or a short-term bill known as a “continuing resolution.”

“We’re running out of time, and that may end up being the only option left that we could agree to pursue,” McConnell told reporters a day after meeting his Democratic counterpart Chuck Schumer to discuss a comprehensive omnibus package.

“We don’t have agreements to do virtually anything,” McConnell said. “We don’t even have an overall agreement on how much we want to spend.”

An omnibus bill would be expected to exceed the $1.5 trillion funding package that Congress approved last March. Senator Richard Shelby, the top Republican appropriator said the two sides were about $25 billion apart, which he described as “pretty close.”

Schumer acknowledged that there was still “a lot of negotiating left to do” to get an omnibus bill.

“Leader McConnell and I have agreed to try and work together to make sure we get a year-long omnibus funding bill done. We hope it can be done this year,” Schumer told reporters.

Schumer and McConnell had said an omnibus was vital for national security. A continuing resolution, or CR, would force the military to operate under funding levels of the last fiscal year.

McConnell’s comments followed early criticism from Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, which Republicans are due to take control in January after winning a slim margin in last month’s midterm elections.

“Any Republican who’s out there trying to work with them is wrong,” McCarthy told Fox News in a late Monday interview. “Wait ’til we’re in charge,” he said.

It was not clear whether McConnell was acceding to McCarthy’s demand. The Senate leader told reporters he was “dealing with the practical situation.”

Federal agencies have been shuttered 10 times since 1981. The longest, under former President Donald Trump, lasted 35 days and forced about 800,000 workers to be furloughed or to work without pay.

By backing a short-term resolution, McConnell could help boost McCarthy’s hopes of becoming House speaker next year over opposition from hardline conservatives, who are threatening to block his path to the top post.

Earlier on Tuesday, Republican conservative Representative Andy Biggs announced that he would stand for the job against McCarthy when the next Congress convenes on Jan. 3.

(JTA) — Natan Levy, one of the few Israelis ever to compete in the mixed martial arts Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, isn’t pulling any punches in talking about Kanye West’s antisemitism.

“Kanye West, if you’ve got a problem with me or my people, come see me, bro,” Levy said during an interview Saturday following a victory at UFC Orlando. 

“I think life is too short to hate, so to all these hateful people it sucks for you, I pity you,” he said, when asked for his reaction to the recent controversies surrounding West, who now goes by Ye, and NBA star Kyrie Irving. 

Last week, Ye added to his growing list of antisemitic rants by praising Hitler during a three-hour appearance on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ “InfoWars” show. “Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table. Especially Hitler,” Ye said.

Levy, who was born in France and moved to Israel as a young child, has become only the third Israeli to sign on with the UFC, the world’s top mixed martial arts league. He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last year that he’s proud to bring an Israeli flag with him to fights.

“I am Jewish, it’s what I am, it’s what I was born,” Levy said during his post-fight interview. “I’m very proud of it and I will fight for it. I will fight for my people in the octagon, or wherever need be, and I will not stand for antisemitism. I won’t stand for any racism — not around me. Don’t bully anybody around me, or I’m going to find you.”

Levy also said he has personally felt the recent spike in online antisemitism in the wake of the news surrounding multiple antisemitic public figures, saying sarcastically that he has received “a lot of lovely DMs,” or direct messages on social media. “Trust me, I’ve noticed it,” he said with a smile.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The post Israeli UFC fighter Natan Levy responds to Kanye West’s antisemitism: ‘Come see me, bro’ appeared first on The Forward.