- Prominent short seller Jim Chanos says he’s concerned about the fragility of the stock market in response to increases in interest rates.
- “One of the things that worries me is just how fragile we seem to be to small rises in interest rates,” Chanos told CNBC’s Sarah Eisen.
- While government debt rates rallied for much of 2018 — sometimes sharply — borrowing costs are still far below historical norms.
Prominent short seller Jim Chanos is troubled by the fragility of the stock market, telling CNBC on Thursday that recent equity sell-offs in response to modest increases in borrowing costs isn’t a healthy sign.
“One of the things that worries me is just how fragile we seem to be to small rises in interest rates,” Chanos told CNBC’s Sarah Eisen. “If I were to tell you that nominal GDP growth recently was 6 percent, with record low unemployment — and good jobs numbers, good wage numbers — and you say ‘Gee! We’re having a problem with 3 percent interest rates,’ you’d say that’s — you know — what kind of fragility in the system?”
Chanos, who spoke from the Yale CEO Summit in New York, referenced the recent rise of the 10-year Treasury note yield above 3 percent.