Stocks are trading down today for a few reasons: Fed worries, speculation around job numbers, and the Delta variant’s world tour. 👎
Today, the vice-chair of America’s central bank indicated that interest rates might rise as early as 2023, paving the road to cut bond sales later this year.
Unfortunately, investors didn’t take that news very well. That’s because both bonds and stocks have been propped up by the Federal Reserve’s current monetary policy. That is, at least, if you buy into the data. 💁
To make matters worse, investors were given two pieces of conflicting economic data before US payrolls this Friday. The first was ADP’s employment data, which showed we added way fewer jobs last month than we should have. The second was ISM’s service gauge, which topped estimates and indicated that “business activity, new orders, and employment improved.”
To make matters worse, investors now have to consider whether the emergence of the all-new Delta Plus variant is something they should worry about. No, it’s not a streaming service or subscription to a SaaS service—it could be the next BIG variant. Or not. Who knows. There’s, like, six COVID variants now, so every COVID glo up is going to scare investors less and less.
Worries aside, with our luck stocks will probably trade up tomorrow. 🙄
$VTI traded down 0.45% today.