The stock market reacted negatively to the Fed Chair’s comment indicating that the apex bank was uninterested in rate cuts until after March.
The US stock market fell on Wednesday in response to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s announcement that the US apex bank will not reduce interest rates. The Nasdaq Composite had the biggest fall of the three major indexes, closing at 15,154.01 after losing 2.23%. While the S&P 500 closed at 4,845.65 after losing 1.61%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIJA) lost 0.82%, falling 317.01 points to its 38,150.30 close.
Unfortunately for Wall Street, the Nasdaq had its worst day since October, and September for the S&P 500. For Dow, the performance was its worst since December.
Rate Cuts Should Happen This Year but Not March
Observers were hoping the Fed would include some indication of when it would begin to cut rates. Powell said he believes the Fed likely wouldn’t reduce interest rates by the next meeting in March. However, the Fed Chair’s comments specified that the central bank is unlikely to increase rates again. This seemed to confirm that there would be no more tightening.
“We believe that our policy rate is likely at its peak for this tightening cycle and that if the economy evolves broadly as expected, it will likely be appropriate to begin dialing back policy restraint, at some point this year,” said he.
Some individual stocks also fell on the day. For instance, Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ: AMD) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) lost about 3% each after posting quarterly results showing disappointing guidance. Nevertheless, according to MarketWatch data, AMD is up 14% this month. For Alphabet, the tech giant lost over 7%, its worst day since October.
On the other hand, The Boeing Company’s (NYSE: BA) stock rose by more than 5% after the firm posted quarterly results that surpassed expectations analysts had set. The biggest gainer on the Nasdaq is Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), which rose more than 24% this month alone, according to MarketWatch data. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) has also increased this month, pulling gains of 16%. In addition, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) stock gained 12.7% this month.
Other Markets
Bitcoin (BTC) fell after Powell said a rate cut is unlikely. The world’s king coin has lost 2% in 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data, even though it gained 7% over the last 7 days. Ether (ETH) also fell, losing 4% in 24 hours and gaining 3% over the last week. Similar losses were seen in other altcoins, including BNB’s 24-hour loss of 3%, XRP losing 2%, and Cardano (ADA) at 4%. Nonetheless, some of these coins have solid 7-day gains, with ADA at 6%, Avalanche (AVAX) at 11%, and Solana (SOL) AT 11%,
The oil market may be a bit more solid in general, as prices look positive. The global benchmark Brent and US crude have climbed 6.09% and 5.95%, respectively, this month, on course for the first monthly gain since September. Unfortunately, tensions between the US and Iran are brewing as the US prepares to retaliate over the death of three soldiers killed by a drone connected to Iran-backed militants. Iran has denied involvement in the attack.
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