A rising inflation rate has been a drag on the U.S. stock market for much of 2022. The Fed’s recent moves to curb inflation by raising interest rates multiple times may have kept inflation from growing much worse. But as Fed chairman Jerome Powell noted in his speech the other day, high inflation remains a significant ongoing problem, and the Fed will continue raising rates until inflation is substantially reduced.
Powell’s early morning speech shook the markets, and all three indices sold off the rest of the day. The Dow and S&P 500 each lost over 3%, while the Nasdaq declined by just under 4%. Curiously, the mortgage real estate investment trust (REIT) sector, which has had a volatile ride throughout 2022, fared somewhat better than the overall market.
