Reuters.

Dear Commons Community,

Stocks tumbled yesterday on worries the U.S. economy could be cracking under the weight of high interest rates meant to whip inflation.

The S&P 500 sank 1.8% for its first back-to-back losses of at least 1% since April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 610 points, or 1.5%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 2.4% as a sell-off for stocks whipped all the way around the world back to Wall Street. As reported by The Associated Press.

A report showing hiring by U.S. employers slowed last month by much more than economists expected sent fear through markets, with both stocks and bond yields dropping sharply. It followed a batch of weaker-than-expected reports on the economy from a day earlier, including a worsening for U.S. manufacturing activity, which has been one of the areas hurt most by high rates.

It was just a couple days ago that U.S. stock indexes jumped to their best day in months after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gave the clearest indication yet that inflation has slowed enough for cuts to rates to begin in September.

Now, worries are rising the Fed may have kept its main interest rate at a two-decade high for too long. A rate cut would make it easier for U.S. households and companies to borrow money and boost the economy, but it could take months to a year for the full effects to filter through.

“The Fed is seizing defeat from the jaws of victory,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “Economic momentum has slowed so much that a rate cut in September will be too little and too late. They’ll have to do something bigger than” the traditional cut of a quarter of a percentage point “to avert a recession.”

The Fed needs to get its act together!

Tony

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