The markets reacted negatively from remarks made during a December meeting with the Federal Reserve. Their notes were made public today and highlighted a serious concern for inflation. What was once thought of as transitory, Jerome Powell has now admitted inflation may be here to stay. In order to combat this nationwide issue, the Fed plans to raise interest rates as early as March and plans to scale back their bond purchasing program. Rate increases were initially planned to take effect in 2023 but due to the uncontrollable nature of price hikes from gas to bread and everything in between, the Federal Reserve hopes this earlier than expected change in monetary policy will help relieve the burden placed on consumers. These remarks led to a sell off causing the DOW to fall by a percent, NASDAQ dropped a whopping 3 percent, and the S&P index lost about 2 percent. Growth and tech stocks took a harder hit while oil and gas companies experienced a 2 percent increase. The worst one of them all is Bitcoin tumbling from a steady 47k to an unfortunate 44k with no end in sight. The fall in Bitcoin also caused ALT coins to fall anywhere between 10-15% below their 24 hour trading volume.
This segment aired on KTLA’s 5 Live on Jan. 1, 2022.
