Talking Heads Talk Stocks Down

We were surprised that stock prices didn't drop yesterday along with bond prices. So we aren't surprised to see stock prices down today. Contributing to the selloff was  JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who warned interest rates may need to rise further to subdue inflation. In an interview with The Times of India, he said that the Fed might have to raise the federal funds rate to 7%.

In an article today, Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari wrote that there’s nearly a 40% chance that the Fed might have to push the federal funds rate "meaningfully higher" to bring down inflation.

Meanwhile, there doesn't seem to be much progress in either negotiations to end the auto strike or to avert a government shutdown. The MegaCap-8 stock prices were weighed down today by falling valuation multiples in response to rising bond yields. The market also got hit after the FTC filed its antitrust lawsuit against Amazon.

The recent stew of bad news may be starting to weigh on analysts' earnings expectations. They turned a bit more cautious during the September 21 week (chart).