‘Waking Everyone Up’: Wall Street Reacts to Powell’s Hawkishness

  • S&P initially fell 1%, Two-Year Treasury Yield Topped 2.1%
  • ‘I’m sort of surprised that the market is surprised”: Stovall
WATCH: Fed Chair Jerome Powell says the central bank will take the “necessary steps” to ensure a return to price stability. Source: Bloomberg
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Just in case financial markets didn’t get Jerome Powell’s hawkish message last week, they got it Monday when he made it abundantly clear that the Federal Reserve is coming hard for inflation, even if it means slowing the economy.

The reaction on Wall Street was swift. Stocks gave up gains and slid more than 1%, while Treasuries extended losses that took the two-year Treasury yield past 2.1%. But just like last Wednesday, an initial freakout turned into a more benign decline, with the S&P 500 down just 0.3% as of 2:50 p.m. in New York.