U.S. equities soar on Thursday, as investors assessed the hawkish comments from the Fed Chair.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that he expects inflation to remain high throughout 2022. He also would not rule out rate hikes from March forward.
Earlier statements from the Fed suggested that tapering of the Fed’s balance sheet could come alongside rate hikes.
Still, despite these comments, stocks, including the Nasdaq were higher. Investors apparently believe that the tech-heavy index was oversold yesterday. Markets were likely expecting still more hawkish statements, as the country is facing staggering levels of inflation.
U.S. Dollar and Treasuries
The yield on the 10-year Treasury stands up 1.8%. The dollar index soared more than 1%, on Fed’s rate hike comments.
| Price | Chg. | Chg. % | |
| U.S. Dollar Index (DXY): | 97.1 | +1.15 | +1.20% |
| Yield | Change | Previous close | |
| U.S. 1 Year Treasury Bill | 0.759% | 0.046 | 0.712% |
| U.S. 5 Year Treasury Note | 1.693% | 0.003 | 1.689% |
| U.S. 10 Year Treasury Note | 1.841% | -0.029 | 1.869% |
Stocks To Watch
EV maker Tesla dropped after reporting record Q4 sales. The company said that its production would suffer due to supply chain disruptions. Still, they pledged to grow sales by 50% in 2022.
Shares of Intel slumped after the chipmaker said that supply chain issues would hurt short-term profits.
Shares of streaming giant Netflix surged after investor Bill Ackman revealed his $1 billion stake in the company. Pershing Square Capital Management started buying shares last week, following the company’s weak Q4 reports, which made it sell at a discount.
Apple was up in premarket trading ahead of its earnings report. Investors expect the tech giant to report $118.7 billion in earnings and $1.89 per share on profits.
| Symbol | Company Name | Price | Chg. % | |
| TSLA | Tesla Inc. | $932.86 | -0.49% | |
| AAPL | Apple Inc. | $161.84 | 1.35% | |
| NFLX | Netflix Inc. | $376.00 | 4.53% | |
| INTC | Intel Corp. | $50.23 | -2.88% |
Commodities To Watch
Oil reached a seven-year high on the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Gold dropped more than 1.3%, and silver dropped more than 3% as the dollar surged.
| Resource | Price | Chg. % |
| WTI Crude Oil | $88.00 | 0.74% |
| Brent Crude Oil | $90.64 | 0.76% |
| Natural Gas | $4.08 | 1.07% |
| Gold | $1,804.80 | -1.36% |
| Silver | $23.00 | -3.41% |
| Copper | $4.46 | -1.23% |
Crypto
The global crypto market cap is $1.66T, a 2.63% decrease over the last day. Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 41.88%, a decrease of 0.12% over the same period.
| Currency | Symbol | Price | Chg. % | Market Cap. |
| Bitcoin | BTC | $36,772.46 | -2.83% | 696.52b |
| Etherium | ETH | $2,473.99 | -2.94% | 294.30b |
| Binance coin | BNB | $373.43 | -3.87% | 55.51b |
| Solana | SOL | $92.02 | -4.86% | 28.98b |
| Cardano | ADA | $ 1.058 | -3.48% | 32.91b |