Last year was brutal for stocks, with massive selloffs amid concerns over the Federal Reserve's regime of aggressive interest-rate hikes to tame the highest inflation in four decades. To steer the U.S. economy back to its target 2% inflation, the Fed has already hiked interest rates from near-zero to the 4.25-4.50% range.
The December jobs report showed the economy gained 223,000 jobs last month, indicating that job growth is slowing but remains strong. Senior central bank officials look forward to the jobs market slackening some more and are likely to keep raising rates before we see a pivot in monetary policy.
