NEW YORK, Sept 8 — Wall Street stocks opened lower today after the European Central Bank announced its largest rate hike ever and the Federal Reserve chief vowed to rein in inflation.

The one-two punch underscored the urgency felt by central banks to combat inflation trends that have weighed on consumers worldwide.

ECB policymakers raised the key policy interest rates by 75 basis points, a leap matched only by a technical move in 1999 shortly after the central bank’s founding.

It came as Fed Chair Jerome Powell said reaffirmed his message that the US central bank must act "strongly” to avoid a repeat of the inflation surge of the 1970s and 1980s.

"We need to keep at it until the job is done to avoid... the kind of very high social costs” of that era, Powell said today.

After rising Wednesday amid the sense the market was oversold, US stocks were in the red early today.

About 30 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3 per cent at 31,497.74.

The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.2 per cent to 3,972.68, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index edged down 0.1 per cent to 11,776.19.

Among individual stocks, spice maker McCormick & Company was down 7.4 per cent after it lowered its 2022 earnings and sales forecast Thursday citing pressures on consumers and supply chain problems. — AFP