NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed sharply lower after the head of the Federal Reserve dashed Wall Street’s hopes that it may soon ease up on high interest rates in its effort to tame inflation. The S&P 500 lost 3.4% Friday, its biggest drop in two months, after Jerome Powell said the Fed will likely need to keep interest rates high enough to slow the economy for some time in order to beat back the high inflation sweeping the country. Tech stocks led the way lower, pulling the Nasdaq composite down even more. Higher rates help corral inflation, but they also hurt asset prices.