Fears of faster US interest rate hikes continued to drag down markets across the world on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.5 percent. The S&P 500 lost 1.11 percent. And the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.78 percent. New Fed Chair Jerome Powell's Tuesday comments on the economy and inflation revived fears of more interest rate hikes than the previously projected three. In Europe, shares were not spared from these concerns. The FTSE 100 lost 0.69 percent. Both the German DAX and French CAC 40 declined 0.44 percent.