The main US and European stock indices closed Thursday with a second consecutive day of declines. Investors were cautious about the Fed's key rate hike of 50 basis points yesterday and Fed Chief Jerome Powell's comments after the meeting, as well as his remarks at the press conference that followed.

Powell told reporters that he thinks it is appropriate to keep the key rate at a high level until there is stability in inflation reduction. As OANDA analyst Edward Moya commented, Prime news agency quoted him as saying that the Fed was not overly optimistic about the last two months' data on falling prices in the United States.

Additional negative factors for European indices on Thursday were decisions of the ECB and the Bank of England, which similarly raised key rates by 50 bps. In Great Britain the rate reached its maximum in 14 years - 3.5%. According to the trading results, the US key indices were down 2.25% - 3.23%, the European ones decreased by 0.93% - 3.28%.