London, Thursday, 09 March 2023
Thursday saw a 543 point decline in the Dow Jones, a 1.8 point decline in the S&P 500, and a 2% decline in the Nasdaq as investors continued to consider the hawkish comments made this week by Fed Chair Powell while also being wary of tomorrow's payroll report.
Investors now believe that, should Friday's jobs report and next week's CPI print remain hot, a 50bps interest rate increase could be locked in this month.
The Fed Chairman stated that indications of a hotter economy from the start of the year justify faster rate hikes. Although the larger-than-expected rise in jobless claims last week provided some relief from worries of a stubbornly tight labour market, the data will follow strong ADP and JOLTs Job figures.
JPMorgan (-5.4%), Bank of America (-6.1%), and Wells Fargo (6.1%) all fell, leading the losses in banks and financial equities. As a result of the company's plans to collect $2 billion to help offset losses on bond sales, SVB Financial's shares fell 60.4%.
(Written by: The Decision Maker - Finance editors)