02/22/2022
Market turbulence
The U.S. market will be closed on Monday for the Presidents' Day holiday, but investors are likely to be facing another choppy week as fears over a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine underpins demand for safe haven assets.
Ongoing uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s next policy move is also likely to continue to weigh on equities.
The Fed has signaled that it will hike interest rates at its upcoming meeting in March to bring down inflation, which has surged past the central bank’s 2% target to hit its highest levels in four decades, but it has not indicated how aggressively it will act.
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard has called for aggressive steps to curb inflation, while New York Fed chief John Williams said Friday he sees little need for the central bank to go big at the start of its rate-hike cycle.
"This is a confused market, confused about Ukraine, confused about how aggressive the Fed is going to be, and pretty much ignoring very strong earnings results from the fourth quarter," Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York told Reuters.
