Warsh's Hawkish Remarks Send Markets Reeling
The S&P 500 and other US stock markets lost momentum on Friday after Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh's speech at the Jackson Hole symposium. The remarks were seen as more hawkish, driving up short-term Treasury yields.
Warsh emphasized that inflation remains very high, making price stability a top priority for the institution. As a result, investors took this as a signal to sell, causing markets to drop.
The S&P 500 was trading at 7,722.88 points, down 0.10%, while the Dow 30 rose by 0.06% to 53,600.64 points. The Nasdaq fell 0.43%, reaching 26,426.99 points, and the Russell 2000 dropped 1.25% to 2,976.76 points.
The cryptocurrency market also suffered losses, with Bitcoin (BTC) trading near US$ 77,895.81, down 3.10%. The price of gold fell by 2.92%, reaching US$ 4,527.60, and crude oil dropped 0.49% to US$ 83.12.
The Dow was not immune from the losses as investors continued to assess Nvidia's latest results and the proposed acquisition of PayPal shares, which were affected by Advent and Stripe withdrawing their bid for a US$ 50 billion takeover.