Stocks are getting slammed again on Friday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.1 percent on Thursday to close below the 17,000 level for the first time since October. The S&P 500 dipped below 2,000 and sliced below its 200-day moving average, putting its post-2011 uptrend at risk. Hints of panic are in the air as well, as the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) surged 25 percent yesterday and another 23 percent today to return to levels not seen since October.

Many catalysts were fingered for blame, especially a weak early reading on factory activity in China — further evidence that the Chinese economy is slowing down. There are also worries about corporate earnings amid the ongoing slide in oil prices. And company-specific news is weighing as well, with Disney (DIS) down hard on cord-cutting concerns.

But underneath it all lies the ongoing fear over the approaching potential rate hike from the Federal Reserve on Sept. 17. We’re in the midst of “hike havoc” — not unlike the “taper tantrum” of mid-2013, when former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke publicly broached the beginning of the end of the QE3 bond purchase stimulus program. Traders seem concerned the Fed could be mulling a rate hike despite a lack of progress on pushing inflation back to its 2 percent target.

The reason? This statement from the meeting minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee: “Many participants indicated that their outlook for sustained economic growth and further improvement in labor markets was key in supporting their expectation that inflation would move up to the Committee’s 2 percent objective.”

Read the article “ANALYSIS: Can the Fed Ignore this Market Rout?” on thefiscaltimes.com.