Dow Jones Futures: Stock Market Sells Off As Hawkish Fed Sees New Terminal Rate

Dow Jones futures fell overnight, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. The stock market whipsawed sharply lower Wednesday after the Federal Reserve hiked aggressively once again and signaled a higher peak, or “terminal” rate.

X

This is a stock market correction. Investors should remain cautious, but looking for leading names.

Celsius Holdings (CELH), Shockwave Medical (SWAV), ATI (ATI), GlobalFoundries (GFS) and Enphase Energy (ENPH) are all showing strong relative strength in a weak market.

CELH stock and Shockwave Medical are on the IBD Leaderboard watchlist. Celsius Holdings, Enphase and SWAV stock are on the IBD 50. ENPH stock is on the IBD Big Cap 20. Celsius was Wednesday’s IBD Stock Of The Day, while Shockwave was Monday’s.

The video embedded in this article discussed Wednesday’s roller-coaster market action and analyzed Celsius, ATI and GFS stock.

Fed Meeting

As expected, the Fed raised its key interest rate by 75 basis points for a third straight meeting, lifting the target range to 3%-3.25%.

Fed policymakers now see the fed funds rate at 4.4% at the end of 2022, up from 3.4% after the June meeting. That’s what markets are pricing in: Another 75 basis points at the November meeting, followed by 50 basis points in December, for a year-end range of 4.25%-4.5%.

The central bank also signaled some modest tightening in 2023, predicting a 4.6% fed funds rate at the end of next year vs. a 3.8% forecast in June. That’s also not out of line with what market watchers have expected for the terminal rate. Policymakers expect the rate to retreat to 3.9% in 2024.

Fed chief Jerome Powell once again stressed that the central bank won’t let up vs. inflation. He noted that a “soft landing” will be difficult, but wouldn’t say what the odds of a recession are. “At some point,” the Fed will slow the pace of rate hikes, Powell said, but didn’t indicate when that might happen. He added that Fed policy will need to stay “restrictive” for some time.

Fed chief Powell said that the labor market continues to be “out of balance,” though he added that commodity prices look like they’ve peaked.

Dow Jones Futures Today

Dow Jones futures fell 0.6% vs. fair value. S&P 500 futures slipped 0.9%. Nasdaq 100 futures declined 1.1%.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose 6 basis points to 3.57%.

Remember that overnight action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn’t necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular stock market session.

Join IBD experts as they analyze actionable stocks in the stock market rally on IBD Live

Stock Market Wednesday

The stock market rose modestly into the Fed meeting decision, then went on a roller-coaster ride that ended at session lows.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.7% in Wednesday’s stock market trading. The S&P 500 index also retreated 1.7%. The Nasdaq composite tumbled 1.8%. The small-cap Russell 2000 fell 1.5%

U.S. crude oil prices fell 1.2% to $82.94 a barrel.

The 10-year Treasury yield fell 6 basis points to 3.51% after briefly hitting 3.62% following the Fed rate hike. The two-year Treasury yield rose above 4%, closing around 4.04% but well off session highs.

ETFs

Among the best ETFs, the Innovator…