Wall Street slips on rising recession worries

STORY: U.S. stocks ended broadly lower on Wednesday, after a choppy session where investors struggled to find a clear direction following downbeat comments from the top bank executives, who said "a mild to hard recession" was likely ahead.

The Dow finished flat. The S&P 500 fell fractionally but for the fifth straight session, while the Nasdaq lost half of a percent, closing down for the fourth session in a row.

Fears over how long the Federal Reserve might stick to rate-hikes ahead of its policy meeting next week are likely to continue to weigh on the stock market, said George Ball, chairman of Sanders Morris Harris.

"The barometer of up or down is the expectation of Fed rate hikes: how soon, how much, for how long. And, right now, I think everyone accepts the notion of 50 basis points in a few days [and] probably 50 basis points sometime after that. And following those two moves by the Fed, nobody has the slightest idea. Will it be no recession? Slight recession? I think slight recession is the consensus. But that's all baked into the market. And, so, really for the last two weeks with a couple of dramatic up days and down days as the exceptions, the market is leaderless, rudderless and aimless."

Shares of energy companies fell, weighed down by another slump in oil prices, which settled at the lowest level in 2022, as concerns over the outlook for global growth wiped out all of this year's gains.

Shares of Apple fell after Morgan Stanley cut its estimates for iPhone shipments for the holiday quarter.

Shares of Tesla lost more than 3% amid concerns of disruptions at its factory in Shanghai, where fewer cars than expected could roll off production lines this month.

And, finally, shares of Carvana lost nearly half their value after Wedbush Securities downgraded the used-car retailer's stock to "underperform" from "neutral" and slashed its price target to $1.