U.S. stocks were lower on Wednesday afternoon after minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting showed officials were willing to aggressively raise interest rates to fight inflation.

Fed raises benchmark Interest Rates rose by 0.25 percentage points last month, but minutes of the meeting showed that some participants would have hoped for a sharp 0.5 percentage point increase had it not been for the uncertainty caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Many” of them said an increase of at least 0.5 percentage points later in the year would be appropriate.

The minutes also showed that officials were refining plans to begin stripping assets from the Fed’s balance sheet at a faster pace than in 2017.Fed Governor Lael Brainard Say The central bank is likely to rapidly shrink its $9 trillion balance sheet from May.

The S&P 500 fell 1.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 2.1% after the index recovered even more losses immediately after the minutes were released.

It’s already been a painful day for investors in Europe and Asia. The Europe-wide Stoxx 600 fell 1.5%, its biggest one-day drop in nearly a month, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.9% and Japan’s Topix fell 1.3%.

Government debt was also under pressure, with the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rising 0.06 percentage point to 2.61%, while yields in Germany and Italy also climbed. Government bond yields, the basis for the rate banks charge businesses and households for lending, rise as prices fall.

Investors are grappling with a difficult mix of rising U.S. and European inflation, a conflict in Ukraine and an escalating coronavirus outbreak in China.On Wednesday, the U.S. and U.K. governments both strengthen sanctions Against the atrocities committed by the Russian army, against Russian banks.

“There are a lot of things to worry about,” said Maarten Geerdink, head of European equities at NN Investment Partners, “but the most important thing is that we have a very accommodative Fed and we have a tightening side now.”

“By taking these assets off the balance sheet and buying and selling bonds, it shows we don’t need as much,” said Juliette Cohen, a strategist at CPR Asset Management. [monetary] Loose policy due to high inflation levels and reinforce the idea that they will raise interest rates.

“We expect more rapid monetary tightening not only in the US but also in the euro zone,” she added, after the euro zone’s annual inflation rate reached record high It was 7.5% in March.