S&P 500 falls for a fourth day, putting summer market comeback in doubt; European markets close lower as investors grapple with Fed tightening fears 
Stocks fell Wednesday — the last day of August — in choppy trading, putting the major averages on track for their fourth straight losing session as investors weighed the Federal Reserve’s efforts to fight inflation. 
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 144 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 lost 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.1%. The major averages were higher earlier in the day. 
BYD shares plunged more than 12% during Wednesday’s session in Hong Kong, becoming the worst performer on the Hang Seng Index, after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway trimmed its stake in the Chinese electric car maker. The conglomerate slightly reduced its shares from 20.04% to 19.92%, according to a filing on the Hong Kong exchange. Berkshire sold 1.33 million shares of BYD for about $47 million. 
Bed Bath & Beyond laid out a strategic plan Wednesday, but the details only seem to reinforce that the home goods retailer still has a rough road ahead of it as it attempts to salvage its business. Shares are down nearly 24%. 
Shares of the online trading platform fell 2% in early morning trading after Barclays said the company’s near-term outlook looks grim, with increasing competition and mounting regulatory risks. 

The pan-European Stoxx 600 provisionally closed down by 1%. Oil and gas stocks fell 2.7% to lead losses as most sectors and major bourses dipped into negative territory. 
Russian gas giant Gazprom posted a record first-half profit and promised new dividends to shareholders, sending its shares soaring more than 27% in early trade in Moscow on Wednesday. 
The majority state-owned energy company said its board had proposed a dividend of 51.03 Russian rubles ($0.85) per ordinary share for the first half of 2022. In its first-half earnings report on Tuesday, Gazprom announced a record 2.5 trillion ruble ($41.75 billion) net profit. 
Source: CNBC, Investing.com