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Dow drops over 500 points on Bullard comments
The Dow fell more than 500 points Friday on a Fed official’s hawkish comments on inflation. James Bullard said inflation was stronger than anticipated, and that spooked investors. Wall Street’s volatility gauge spiked, the U.S. dollar further strengthened, and benchmark Treasury yields declined. The falling yields hurt interest rate-sensitive bank stocks, making them the day’s top decliners on the S&P 500. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of American shed more than 2%. Mercadien Asset Management President Ken Kamen said Wall Street made an errant knee-jerk reaction by selling economically-sensitive cyclical stocks. “I actually think that the market is kind of getting it wrong here in that we’re having a lot of economic activity going to happen still from the reopening trade. We’re still getting a global spreading of vaccine. There’s a whole bunch of things to rethink that we’re going to have an economy that’s not going to be slowing down over the next year or two.” The Dow ended 1.6% lower, declining every day of this week. The S&P 500 fell 1.3%. The Nasdaq shed 0.9%. On the week, the Dow lost nearly 3.5% as the S&P snapped a three-week winning streak, and the Nasdaq also lost ground. Adobe shares rose 2.6% to hit an all-time high. They were the second-leading gainer on the S&P. The software developer behind Photoshop saw its top and bottom lines and profit forecast top Wall Street’s expectations.
