The stock market likes to climb a wall of worry, but not sure about a deluge of worries. The market was climbing off deep pre-opening lows when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell shocked everyone with a more hawkish tone during testimony to the Senate Banking committee.
“At this point, the economy is very strong, and inflationary pressures are high,” Mr. Powell said during a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee. “It is therefore appropriate in my view to consider wrapping up the taper of our asset purchases, which we actually announced at our November meeting, perhaps a few months sooner.”
Mr. Powell said that the Fed will discuss slowing bond purchase faster “at our upcoming meeting in a couple of weeks” — stressing that between now and then, the Fed will get a better sense of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus, a fresh labor market report and a new reading on consumer price inflation.
Those comments proved to be a fatal blow to that early rebound that could have erased losses in the S&P 500.
Interestingly the market was chipping away at Omicron concerns which many see as a short-lived emergency.
However, these Powell concerns have extended selling off the "winners", which started last Friday when 52-week lows declined but so did new highs. My theory is stocks that are down have gotten too oversold, and many are closing the winners. These sellers would otherwise tell you they believe in riding winners and would be holders - so this is a form of panic.
To see the chart, click here.
The Fed was going to taper so that shouldn't be news, but at some point, Powell will have to make it clear tapering is not hiking rates
I suspect Powell will say in the next 24 hours that tapering is not rate hikes.
We want to hold most positions, especially mega growers but we'd also like to see the market make a stand. I would love to see the S&P 500 close above Friday's close.
Bond yields are not signaling rapid rate hikes and the dollar is not reflecting panic. Stock investors have been nicked up a bit and are becoming rattled.