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US stocks extended their sell-off on Friday as investors continued to fret about a hawkish Fed that appears determined to keep interest rates high through 2023.Stocks initially rallied at the start of the week after the November CPI report showed progress on inflation.“I think the Fed is making a terrible mistake. Their dot plot is way too tight,” Jeremy Siegel said on Friday.
US stocks fell on Friday, extending their losing streak to a third day following the Federal Reserve’s 50-basis-point interest rate hike on Wednesday.
Perhaps more upsetting to investors than the expected rate hike was the Fed’s 2023 year-end Fed Funds rate projection of 5.1%. That assumes three more interest rate hikes of 25 basis points in 2023, which was more than what markets were expecting heading into the Fed’s FOMC meeting.
The more hawkish stance from the Fed was likely even more jarring to investors given that on Tuesday, the November CPI report showed that progress is being made in taming inflation.
According to Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel, the current dynamic could lead to a disaster for the economy in 2023. “I think the Fed is making a terrible mistake. Their dot plot is way too tight. Inflation is basically over… The talk of going higher and staying high through 2023 I think would guarantee a very steep recession,” Siegel said on Friday.
Here’s where US indexes stood at the 4 p.m. ET close on Friday:
S&P 500: 3,852.36, down 1.1%Dow Jones Industrial Average: 32,920.46, down 0.9% (282 points)Nasdaq Composite: 10,705.41, down 1%
Here’s what else happened today:
Famed ‘Big Short’ investor Danny Moses says investors should avoid Tesla stock because Elon Musk’s brand is deteriorating amid his ongoing management of Twitter.Elon Musk has now cashed in nearly $40 billion of Tesla stock since November 2021. That figure dwarfs his electric-vehicle company’s profits.Russia is shipping millions of barrels of oil to India on Western-insured tankers, the FT reported Friday. It’s the first sign Moscow may be breaking Putin’s vow to shun countries that accept a G7 price cap.Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest scooped up $11.2 million of Coinbase stock this week. As crypto turmoil weighs on the exchange, Coinbase shares are trading near all-time lows. Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary said Changpeng Zhao was wrong to call him a “liar” in a recent interview to CNBC.FTX has petitioned a federal court for permission to sell several of its subsidiaries, including US derivatives platform LedgerX, as the troubled firm’s restructuring process picks up.
In commodities, bonds and crypto:
West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 2.21% to $74.43 per barrel. Brent crude, oil’s international benchmark, dropped 2.65% to $79.06.Gold rose 0.88% to $1,803.60 per ounce.The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped three basis point to 3.48%.Bitcoin fell 2.79% to $16,911, while ether dropped 4.97% to $1,206.