Few Bulls Standing Amidst Rising Market Volatility

Good Evening,

There is an adage on Wall Street: Markets take the staircase up, and the elevator down. This week, however, markets got excited and took the elevator both ways in a rollercoaster tape for the stock market.

The major averages took a unanimous tumble this week, with both the DOW and S&P 500 ending down -2.91% and the NASDAQ falling -2.6%.  The NASDAQ held up best out of the major averages as treasury yields and the US Dollar paused their ever-lasting rally higher. Yields actually fell slightly on the week, with the 2Y and 10Y Treasury Yields trading at 4.26% and 3.82% respectively as of Friday’s close.

The negative move in equities comes at the heels of continued hawkish Fed-speak, a stubbornly high Core PCE report (4.9% actual vs 4.7% expected), and signs that consumer demand is slowing. Fears of slowing demand for Apple’s iPhone 14 rippled through markets on Wednesday and led a cascade of corporations to similarly announce slowing results. Of the group was Micron, which cited slowing demand for its chips, and Carnival Cruise lines which cited that inflationary cost-pressures were squeezing its customers.