Wall Streets ends down, oil gains as Jerome Powell suggests aggressive Fed policy

Wall Streets ends down, oil gains as Jerome Powell suggests aggressive Fed policy

Jerome Powell said that a half-point interest rate increase will be "on the table" when the Fed meets in May, adding it would be appropriate to "be moving a little more quickly."







Reuters









April 22, 2022 / 06:33 AM IST





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Wall Street reversed course and posted losses on Thursday while oil gained as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggested the U.S. central bank would move aggressively to curb inflation.

Powell said that a half-point interest rate increase will be "on the table" when the Fed meets in May, adding it would be appropriate to "be moving a little more quickly."

U.S. stocks opened strong, buoyed by corporate earnings and strong jobless data, but began to retreat ahead of Powell's afternoon remarks. Those losses steepened after he spoke, as investor concerns about central banks' inflation fight took center stage.

"Powell is intimating that avoiding a recession will not be easy. That is new," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist for Ingalls & Snyder in New York. "It's a relief for the market to hear the Fed admit this, therefore they may be more focused on avoiding this possibility or avoiding any type