Courtesy of Pam Martens
Jerome (Jay) Powell, Chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Speaks at a Press Conference Following FOMC Announcement on March 20, 2019
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
The real drama in the market yesterday was not the 2:00 p.m. release of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement to hold rates steady but what happened about twenty minutes into the press conference that began at 2:30 p.m. when Fed Chairman Jerome (Jay) Powell began to answer questions from an intrepid group of reporters. The youthful, fresh-scrubbed faces from well-known media outlets presented a paradoxical contrast to the gritty questions they lobbed at the man who clearly understood that losing his cool could tank the stock market.
But despite Powell’s calm exterior, the stock market didn’t like the questions or the responses from Powell. Opacity is treasured by the masters of today’s stock market. Too much transparency or honesty sends hedge funds and dark pools running for the safety of Treasury notes. Not only did the Dow Jones Industrial Average begin a sharp descent about 24 minutes into the press conference (see chart below) but so did each of the five largest Wall Street bank stocks: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.
So exactly who were these truth-seeking reporters and what was the nature of the uncomfortable questions they asked?
Victoria Guida, Reporter for Politico, Asks About Recent Change to the Fed’s Stress Tests During March 20, 2019 Press Conference
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