Wall Street tumbles, Dow Jones sheds 625 points

US stock indices declined heavily on Thursday amid weak data, while analysts assess Fed's policy decisions.

The Federal Reserve voted to hike rates by 50 basis points at the May 3-4 meeting to 1% as expected, while announcing plans to cut down the budget from the current $9 trillion by nearly $47.5 billion every month.

That will be accelerated to $95 billion a month in about three months from now, while expecting several more rates hike throughout the year.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell expressed concerns about the runaway inflation, and the importance of moving fast to stave it off and support the labor market. 

Earlier US data showed unemployment claims rose to 200 thousand last week, missing estimates of 180 thousand.

Dow Jones fell 1.8% as of 14:29 GMT to 33,435, while S&P 500 fell 2.4% to 4,196, while NASDAQ declined 3.6% to 12,492.