Courtesy of Pam Martens
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Nasdaq and its biggest stock components stomped their feet and gave the Fed Chairman a big thumbs down for his remarks at his press conference yesterday.
As Fed Chairman Jerome (Jay) Powell began to speak at the press conference that commenced at 2:30 p.m. yesterday, the Nasdaq Composite stood at 11,204.36. By the time Powell stopped speaking at around 3:30 p.m., the Nasdaq stood at 11,066.15, down 138 points from an hour earlier. After a failed attempt to rally, the Nasdaq slumped to the closing bell, ending the day just 4 points from its low of the day, closing at 11,050.47. (See chart above.) As of 7:20 a.m. this morning, Nasdaq futures were suggesting a further big decline at the open.
Big tech names led the decline in the Nasdaq yesterday. Companies like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix depend on financially healthy consumers spending their money on their products. Facebook depends on advertisers competing for the consumers’ dollars – which requires that consumers actually have discretionary income to spend. Powell’s dour outlook for the next three years, where it’s expected to be a tough slog to get inflation rearing its head even in the 2 percent range, was not a joyous sound to big tech.
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