U.S. Equities Tracked Losses on Powell’s Pivotal Shift from Transitory Inflation
Sooner than expected wrap up of tapering and spreading of omicron variant is what jittering the markets
Equities saw back-to-back selloff after Jerome Powell took a pivot turn acknowledging inflation is not transitory and with concerns of spreading of omicron with U.S. confirming its first case.
Earlier on Wednesday, the S&P 500 shed losses after climbing almost 2%. The reversal is the biggest since April 2020 despite strong trading volume.
Investors are sheltering towards relatively safe assets, treasuries and gold. Treasuries yield on the 30-year note neared 1.75% while gold is trading at $1,781.15.
Reports from South Africa shows COVID-19 cases almost doubled from Tuesday. New cases continued to show up globally with U.K., Switzerland and Brazil latest to report. The chief scientist remarked current vaccines will likely protect against the new variant.
Key events to watch out this week:
- OPEC+ to announce their decision on oil supply on Thursday
- U.S. initial jobless claims on Thursday
- U.S. jobs report, factory orders on Friday