The Kospi
180721,
-3.33%
in Seoul retreated 3.5% and Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200
XJO,
-1.77%
was off 1.7%. Benchmark indexes rose in Malaysia
FBMKLCI,
-0.10%
and Indonesia
JAKIDX,
-0.18%,
but stocks fell in Singapore
STI,
-0.50%.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index lost 0.1% on Wednesday after a Fed statement said the U.S. central bank “expects it will soon be appropriate” to raise rates. Investors expect as many as four rate hikes this year, starting in March. The Fed also said monthly bond purchases that push down long-term rates by injecting money into the financial system would be phased out in March.
“The odds of a more aggressive front-loading of rate hikes should no longer be dismissed,” Philip Wee and Eugene Leow of DBS Group said in a report. If inflation fails to decline ahead of the Fed’s March meeting, “there may be more catch up to do.”
On Wall Street, the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.15%
slipped to 4,349.93 after being up 2.2% ahead of the Fed announcement.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.38%
fell 0.4% to 34,168.09. The Nasdaq composite
COMP,
+0.02%
was little-changed at 13,542.12, shedding a 3.4% gain earlier in the day.
Wall Street rose immediately after the Fed statement but major indexes gave up their gains as Chair Jerome Powell took questions about how and when the central bank will start letting its balance sheet shrink after buying trillions of dollars of bonds through the pandemic. That would put upward pressure on market interest rates.
The selling accelerated as Powell acknowledged high inflation that has squeezed businesses and consumers isn’t getting better. That could force the Fed to get even more aggressive about raising rates and removing the support it put in place for markets.
The last time the Fed raised rates and shrank its balance sheet at the same time was in late 2018. The S&P 500 lost nearly 20%.
“Since the December meeting, I’d say the inflation situation is about the same but probably slightly worse,” Powell said. “It hasn’t gotten better. It’s probably gotten just a bit worse, and that’s been the pattern.”
Powell also said that there’s room to raise interest rates without hurting the labor market, and wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the Fed could raise short-term rates at any of its seven remaining meetings this year or opt for a larger-than-usual increase at any one of them.
The Fed’s near-zero interest rates helped to boost stock prices for nearly two years, but markets have been volatile since Powell and other officials in mid-December said plans to wind down economic stimulus might be accelerated to fight surging inflation.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude
CLH22,
-0.85%
lost 43 cents to $86.92 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.75 to $87.35 on Wednesday. Brent crude
BRNH22,
-0.76%,
the price basis for international oils, shed 47 cents to $88.27 per barrel in London. It advanced $1.76 the previous session to $89.96.
The dollar
USDJPY,
+0.02%
edged up to 114.57 yen from Wednesday’s 114.55 yen.
