The Federal Reserve has made a huge mistake and the stock market will suffer the worst consequences. The volatily we’ve been witnessing in the past few days marks the beggining of the end. This bear market rally is rapidly fizzling out, and even Morgan Stanley is now sounding the alarm over a breath-taking stock market crash that will change the game for decades.
Powell and his associates are desperately trying to clean up the mess they made both in the economy and financial markets. They’re trying to control raging inflation by depressing consumer demand, but that is hurting millions of Americans and driving businesses to a breaking point.
The last CPI report was a complete and total disaster, with inflation only declining by 0.01% and actually climbing year-over-year. So how are they going to reverse this? The answer is simple: The Fed’s plan is to keep squeezing businesses until they start bleeding more jobs. For them, these are just plain statistics. But for the U.S. industry, American workers, as well as the stock market, higher unemployment will be catastrophic.
The impending death of this bear market rally is going to change the game for good. According to CME’s Fed watch tool, which is based on the Fed funds future used by traders to place their bets in the Fed’s policy rate, there’s a 74% chance the central bank will be forced to raise rates above 5.25%, and there’s a 48% chance by June, interest rates hit 5.5%, which was actually an unthinkable rate just about a month ago.
In order words, policymakers will ultimately have to start raising rates at a 0.5% basis again. And as soon as it happens, the circuit breakers will be triggered and stocks will fall off a cliff. Those who think that the February CPI report will present better news are set for some bitter disappointment. With the Production Price Index going up by 6% in February, we have yet another setback in the battle against inflation. To make things worse, corporate profits and margins are already signaling trouble. 82% of the companies in the S&P 500 have already reported their Q4 earnings, and their profits have declined on average by 4.7%, meaning the market is losing a major catalyst for stock price growth.
A stock market bottom doesn’t look so far away, and giants in the financial world seem to agree with that. On Monday, Morgan Stanley warned that a double-digit loss is coming for the next stage of the stock market crash. In a note to clients, the bank’s chief equity said that “investors are behaving similarly to climbers who blindly push on towards the top of Mount Everest without properly considering the risks.”
“The bear market rally that began in October from reasonable prices and low expectations has morphed into a speculative frenzy based on a Fed pause/pivot that isn’t coming,” the executive added. He argues that the S&P is about to bottom out, falling to 3,000 points – or 26% below the 4,080 points it traded at as of Friday’s closing bell.
All is going as the Fed has planned: businesses are underperforming, unemployment is going up, and consumers can’t consume due to the soaring cost of daily necessities. Well, everything – except inflation. Is it really their goal to bring inflation down or to destroy all the things that hold this country together? We guess we will learn the answer to this question the hard way. So run for the exits while you still can!
FED MINUTES: SEVERAL PARTICIPANTS ADVOCATED RAISING INTEREST RATES BY 50 BASIS POINTS.
— Breaking Market News (@financialjuice) February 22, 2023
This is the SPX matrix
Friday looks interesting: negative GEX increases, implied volatility increases as well, volume P/C ratio 2.40.. high possibility of a dump
overall positioning turns more bearish in long term pic.twitter.com/CcPmPADj3h
— 🅰🅻🅴🆂🆂🅸🅾 (@AlessioUrban) February 22, 2023
Credit Card balances in the US increased 15.2% over the last year, the biggest jump since the 2001 recession. pic.twitter.com/Uf4XnPenFi
— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) February 22, 2023
Mortgage Applications to buy a house just collapsed to an index level of 147.📉
That's the lowest level of buyer demand in 28 YEARS.
Lower than anything we saw in the 2008 Crash.
Down 41% from last year.
(Source: Mortgage Bankers Association) pic.twitter.com/ImF8egREMs
— Nick Gerli (@nickgerli1) February 22, 2023