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Dow falls more than 750 at one point.

April has been one of the wildest months in recent memory for markets, capped off by a key data release that showed the economy shrank last quarter for the first time in years.

President Donald Trump is defending his economic policies while urging Americans to "be patient" amid the tumult of markets and the overall economy.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. consumer spending increased solidly in March as households boosted purchases of motor vehicles to avoid higher prices and shortages due to tariffs, but that did little to change economists' views that the economy had shifted into lower gear. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity, surged 0.7% last month after an upwardly revised 0.5% gain in February, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast consumer spending would rise 0.5% after a previously reported 0.4% increase in February.

Shares of the coffee giant were drifting toward 52-week lows Wednesday, sliding after its latest results disappointed and its new CFO declined to offer an outlook for the months to come.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Treasury's primary dealers say they would prefer to end the federal debt ceiling, as it likely increases debt service costs and market volatility and may hurt the dollar's reserve asset status, minutes of the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC) showed on Wednesday. "The Committee expressed that its preferred option would be for Congress to delegate broad authority to the administration to borrow as necessary to fund government obligations," the TBAC said in the minutes from its quarterly refunding meeting held on Tuesday. Treasury debt yields surged this month after Trump announced punishing "reciprocal" tariffs on many countries on April 2.

A closely watched inflation gauge cooled last month in a sign that prices were steadily easing before most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs were implemented. At the same time, consumers accelerated their spending, particularly on cars, likely in an effort to get ahead of the duties. Wednesday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that consumer prices rose just 2.3% in March from a year earlier, down from 2.7% in February.

The crypto exchange platform launched its crypto-as-a-service solution on Wednesday, citing Bunq as an example of real-world CaaS integration.

Shares of Snap sank 16% Wednesday, a day after the social media company said it wouldn't provide a current-quarter outlook and plans to cut costs because of "uncertainty" about the future.

The gross domestic product reading fell short of the 0.4% growth that economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected.