Fears of more Federal Reserve rate rises have sent bond rates soaring.
Stock futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA –2.73 percent, the S&P 500SPX –2.91%, have all lost more than 2 percent. The S&P 500 dropped 6.3% from Tuesday’s close to Friday’s closing, adding to the losses from the previous week.
Once again, the stock market has fallen below the 20 percent barrier, which is considered a bear market. After falling to a low of 3800 on May 20, the S&P 500 briefly regained some of its lost ground. Another bear market level is expected to be breached, this time at 3837.
According to Sevens Report Research founder Tom Essaye: “Global markets are trading substantially down and bond rates climbed to fresh multi-year highs overnight on worries that the Fed is growing more aggressive into an economic slowdown.
The yield on the two-year Treasury, which seeks to predict the federal-funds rate in two years, reached a fresh multi-year high of 3.19 percent. An epidemic-era low of 0.1% has been shattered by an explosive rise.
That’s because the markets believe that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again in the future. Each of the Fed’s summer meetings has seen a half-point increase in the fed-funds rate predicted. While it had previously been speculated that slower economic growth may force the Fed to delay its rate rise schedule, it is now widely assumed that rates will be raised in September. At the Fed’s next meeting, some predict it to raise the Fed funds rate by three-quarters of a percent.
The Consumer Price Index rose 8.6 percent year-over-year in May, compared to the previous figure of 8.3 percent, according to Friday’s inflation report. Services like hotel rates and flights rose along with the price of gasoline and food, which all had a role. At this point, it seems the Fed has no alternative but to continue raising rates aggressively.
As Hargreaves Lansdown fund manager Steve Clayton put it, “Markets have gone out on another rough ride amid inflation worries. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Investors are increasingly concerned that economic data may compel a rise in U.S. interest rates that is more and quicker than previously anticipated.”
The yield curve is in danger of inversion as short-term rates continue to rise. As a result, long-term interest rates rise above short-term interest rates. Inflation is expected to be so high in the near future that the Fed will be forced to raise interest rates quickly, which will ultimately hurt economic demand in the long run. On Monday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury stood at 3.24 percent, which is approaching a record high.
Although an inversion of the two and ten-year Treasury rates may frequently signal a recession in the coming year or two, there are exceptions.
The dollar is rising in tandem with increased rates on US government bonds. When U.S. financial assets’ value rises, investors worldwide will buy more dollars. At slightly over 104, the US Dollar Index is up 0.5% from its recent high of May 12 and a multi-year high.
The strengthening of the dollar is unwelcome by the stock market. The stronger the dollar, the fewer dollars U.S. multinational corporations accrue when they convert their foreign earnings back into dollars.
The Stoxx 600 index of major European stock markets sank by 2%, while the Nikkei 225 index of major Japanese stock markets plummeted by 3%.
Several cryptocurrencies, including BitcoinBTCUSD –13.88 percent, fell sharply. The price of Bitcoin, the world’s most valuable digital currency, has fallen by 11 percent in the last 24 hours to a record low of $24,400.
The latest selloff in stocks puts negative pressure on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which have mostly been shown to be associated with the stock market. It was aggravated by Celsius Network halting withdrawals of cryptocurrency deposits from its platform.
Stocks moving Monday include the following:
After RBC upgraded Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) to Outperform from Sector Perform on Thursday, the electric car maker’s shares fell 4.3%.
Shares of Zendesk (ZEN) fell 5.4 percent after Morgan Stanley cut the company to Equal Weight from Overweight. (DOCU) Shares of DocuSign (DOCU) fell 5.6 percent Monday, after a downgrade from Peer Perform to Underperform at Wolfe Research. Oil prices decreased, and Berenberg downgraded Kosmos Energy (KOS) shares to Hold from Buy, resulting in a 5.6 percent reduction in the stock price.
Summit Insights downgraded Micron Technology (MU) to Hold from Buy, resulting in a 4.3% dip in the price.
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