The yield on 10-year U.S. government bonds briefly touched 4% for the first time in more than a decade Wednesday, the latest leg of a historically steep rise that has jolted financial markets this year.

Yesterday’s blue-chip index’s decline pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average into a bear market – defined in Wall Street parlance as a drop of 20% or more from a recent high.

Ten-year Treasury yields rose to 3.545%, the highest closing level since April 2011.

Stocks suffered their worst day since 2020 as high inflation raised fears about a more-aggressive Fed. The Dow dropped nearly 1,300 points.

Deposits at U.S. banks fell by a record $370 billion in the second quarter, the first decline since 2018. Deposits fell to $19.563 trillion as of June 30, down from $19.932 trillion in March.

Tech firm startups raised $444 billion in the first eight months of 2022, down from $526 billion during the same period in 2021.

The Federal Reserve appears to be on a path to raise interest rates by another 0.75 percentage point this month in the wake of Chairman Jerome Powell’s public pledge to reduce inflation even if it increases unemployment.

Defaults on leveraged loans hit $6 billion in August, the highest monthly total since October 2020, when pandemic shutdowns hobbled the U.S. economy. This sprawling loan market doubled over the past decade to about $1.5 trillion.

The aggregate transaction value of private-equity and venture-backed investments in oil and gas has been just $4.4 billion so far this year compared to the peak in full-year 2014 of $49.5 billion. Meanwhile, there has been nearly $11 billion worth of investments in renewable-energy sources such as solar and wind so far this year, on track to surpass oil and gas for the first time.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York President said that combating high inflation is likely to require lifting the central bank’s benchmark short-term interest rate above 3.5% and holding it at that level through next year.