WASHINGTON, DC, USA (AP) — Stocks notched broad gains Monday, but still posted their worst monthly loss since the early days of the pandemic, as Wall Street closed a tumultuous January wracked by worries that imminent interest-rate hikes will make everything in markets more challenging.

The S&P 500 came back from an early dip to close 1.9% higher. Even so, the benchmark index fell 5.3% in January, its worst month since falling 12.5% in March 2020, when it hit bottom after the pandemic suddenly shut down the global economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2% and the Nasdaq composite climbed 3.4%, its biggest single-day gain since early November 2020. Both also ended in the red for January, with the Dow shedding 3.3% and the Nasdaq losing 9%.

Wall Street was shaken this month as investors tried to get ahead of a strategic pivot by the Federal Reserve, which is about to start withdrawing the tremendous stimulus it’s pumped into the economy and markets. Investors expect the Fed to begin raising interest rates in March, among other moves to make borrowing money less easy.

But uncertainty about how sharply and how quickly the Fed will move has helped cause severe swings on Wall Street. Morning drops for stocks have quickly given way to sharp losses in the afternoon, and vice versa. On Friday, a sudden upturn in the last hour of trading managed to keep the S&P 500 from logging its fourth weekly loss in a row. On Monday, the index reversed an early decline of 0.4%.