Just as the revived consumer confidence was helping a bear market catch a break, robust employment data and a faster-than-expected expansion of industrial output have reignited concerns of further interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and the ever-increasing probability of an economic downturn.
While market volatility is unlikely to ease anytime soon, Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at U.K. brokerage Hargreaves Lansdown, expressed her optimism by saying, “Once central banks hit pause, as they will do at some point next year as inflation falls back, that will put some more vigor back into markets.”
