Stock Markets Off to Worst Start Since 2016 as Fed Fights Inflation

What happens next comes from an established playbook. As William McChesney Martin, a former Fed chairman, said in 1955, the central bank finds itself acting as the adult in the room, “who has ordered the punch bowl removed just when the party was really warming up.”

The mood of the markets shifted on Jan. 5, Mr. Yardeni said, when Fed officials released the minutes of their December policymaking meeting, revealing that they were on the verge of embracing a much tighter monetary policy. A week later, new data showed inflation climbing to its highest level in 40 years.

Putting the two together, it seemed, the Fed would have no choice but to react to curb rapidly rising prices. Stocks began a disorderly decline.

Financial markets now expect the Fed to raise its key interest rate at least three times this year and to start to shrink its balance sheet as soon as this spring. It has reduced the level of its bond buying already. Fed policymakers will meet next week to decide on their next steps, and market strategists will be watching.

Low interest rates made certain sectors especially appealing, foremost among them tech stocks. The SP 500 information technology sector, which includes Apple and Microsoft, has risen 54 percent on an annualized basis since the market’s pandemic-induced trough in March 2020. One reason for this is that low interest rates amplify the value of the expected future returns of growth-oriented companies like these. If rates rise, this calculus can change abruptly.

The very prospect of higher interest rates has made technology the worst-performing sector in the SP 500 this year. Since its peak in late December, it has fallen more than 11 percent.

The SP’s three best-performing sectors in the early days of 2022, on the other hand, are energy, financial services and consumer staples.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/21/business/economy/stock-markets-down-inflation.html