The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that U.S. and Canadian stocks tumbled on the last day of January after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady while dashing hopes for an interest-rate cut in March. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that the three major U.S. stock indexes were already weighed down by weakness in tech and tech-adjacent megacap stocks the day after disappointing Alphabet results. All three U.S. indexes, as well as the Toronto Stock Exchange, fell after the Fed announcement and continued to gyrate lower during Fed chair Jerome Powell's news conference. The S&P 500 closed with its steepest daily loss since Sept. 21. U.S. government bond yields were sharply lower, although a stronger-than-expected Canadian gross domestic product numbers helped to limit the slide in Canadian treasury yields. As expected, the Fed left its key policy rate unchanged at 5.25 to 5.5 per cent against a backdrop of gradually cooling inflation and a resilient economy. "There were no surprises in the Fed statement," said Oliver Pursche at Wealthspire in New York. The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended at 21,021.88, down 205.99, as the price of oil settled lower on lacklustre Chinese economic activity.