Markets closed at the low end of their three-day moving average on Monday as the Federal Reserve hit bottom and the world’s second-biggest economy began to show signs of slowing down.

The benchmark S&P 500 fell 2.2 percent, its worst performance since mid-November, while the Dow Jones industrial average fell 2 percent.

The Nasdaq composite dropped 3.4 percent, the biggest one-day loss since November.

A plunge in oil prices has cut demand for energy and forced many investors to sell stocks as they try to recover from the recent global financial crisis.

U.S. Treasury yields fell to their lowest level since early April and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond was down 3/32 in price.

The dollar dipped to its lowest level against the greenback since April 1.

A U.K. referendum on whether to leave the European Union was expected to push up inflation.

The Bank of England said it expects the economy to expand by 1.5 percent this year.

The Fed will hold off on tightening monetary policy until the end of next year, when it is expected to begin tightening monetary policies, in an effort to keep inflation under control.

The economy has been slowing since the start of the year as the unemployment rate edged up to 8.1 percent in October.

The rate is now forecast to rise to 8 percent in January 2019, when most economists expect the economy will expand by 0.3 percent this quarter.

It is expected the unemployment number will drop further to 8 million by the end, but economists still expect the jobless rate to rise again to 6.2 million in 2019.

Inflation has dropped from 1.9 percent in November to 0.7 percent in December.

The CPI for the 10-month period ending in December was up 0.4.

The inflation rate for the past year was unchanged at 2.9.

“The market is taking this in stride,” said Michael T. Miller, chief investment officer at FirstPoint Advisors in New York.

“There is a lot of good news.

I think the market is starting to get a little bit more cautious.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.8 percent, while tech shares dropped 2.3.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 2,1 percent, with oil down 4.7.

The S&P 500 lost 4.5 points, with airlines and health care stocks down 2.5.

The Dow closed down 0.6 percent.