When stocks plunged in 2018, Jerome Powell was there, buoying sentiment. Two years later as shares careened into the fastest bear market ever, he stepped up again, flooding the system with support.
“The Fed may not be all that concerned about some air leaking” from stretched tech stock valuations, said Credit Suisse Group rates strategist Jonathan Cohn in a note. “A broader and more disruptive sell-off would likely be needed to materially impact the direction of monetary policy.”That policy is now decisively geared toward fighting inflation that reached 7 per cent annually at the end of 2021.
The stock market -- reacting to the threat to the economy -- convulsed, plunging nearly 20 per cent in the next 12 weeks before Powell changed his tune. He repeated the delicate dance again in the middle of 2019.