U.S. stocks open lower after Fed interest-rate decision, regional banks under renewed pressure

U.S. stock indexes opened lower on Thursday as investors assessed the latest Federal Reserve decision which hiked the interest rate by 25 basis points and opened the door to a long-awaited pause in its tightening campaign. Wall Street also picks on more U.S. regional banks on returning fears over the financial system. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.17%
dropped 78, or 0.2%, to 33,341. The S&P 500
SPX,
-0.46%
declined by 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-0.63%
shed 0.2%. Shares in PacWest Bancorp
PACW,
+2.35%
plunged 42% after a report that the company’s executives were weighing a possible sale. Shares of other regional banks also saw pressure Thursday morning. Western Alliance Bancorp’s
WAL,
-1.35%
tumbled 14.9%, and Zions Bancorp NA’s
ZION,
+0.66%
dropped 4%. Elsewhere in Europe, the European Central Bank on Thursday lifted interest rates by 25 basis points, slowing the pace of tightening as it delivered a seventh straight increase.