The Dow fell more than 200 points Wednesday amid a broader cryptocurrency and tech sell-off.
Three market experts explain how they’re assessing the volatility.
Stephanie Link, chief investment strategist at Hightower, is assessing the inflation threat.
“This is all about clearly monetary policies, the Fed behind the curve. It’ll be interesting to get the Fed minutes [Wednesday]. It’s also about inflation – is it transitory or isn’t it? I personally believe it’s not all transitory. Some of it is, obviously on the commodity front, and as we get through the supply chain issues, but if you look at the wage number from the GDP report, 0.7%, then you look at the JOLTS number of 8.1 million, and then you listen to what McDonald’s has to say and Chipotle had to say in terms of increasing wages. That is certainly something top of mind. I know it’s top of mind for me as well. And then also just adding seasonality and profit-taking. Remember the S&P is up 85% from last year’s lows. So, I get it. I do think it’s very interesting that money in money market funds is now back up to $3 trillion, so there’s definitely more of a defensive feel. I’m really not changing my strategy. I really believe that the growth will continue to stay strong.”
Michael Novogratz, founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital, is watching the sell-off in bitcoin.
“You had a confluence of events – a combination of Tax Day, Elon Musk tweets, whatnot. We had started breaking down the positivity in the price action, and now we’ve got a liquidation event. And, you know Humpty Dumpty never gets put back together in two days when he cracks. It’s going to take a while, the market will consolidate, it’ll find a bottom somewhere, I’m hoping it will be close to here. $36,000 [for bitcoin] … We’re pretty close, they’ve had big, big sell-offs with huge volume. And then, it’s not going to bounce right back, it’ll consolidate for a while. The story hasn’t gone anywhere.”
Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” discusses the market pain.
“This day feels like more of a washout day, a crescendo day, everyone’s really panicked. The youth buying crypto right now, they are petrified. … What you have to do is you have to pull back on stories that are really good that have moved up a lot that could benefit. Say there’s a catalyst like the bank stocks.”
