Markets finally woke up to tariff reality. Is this a buying opportunity?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. After President Trump was elected, investors got very excited about all the nice things he’d promised and forgot about stuff that would be bad for stocks. Now they are very anxious about all the stuff that is bad for stocks and have forgotten about the nice things.
Has the selloff gone too far? Regular readers might think me capricious for even asking the question. I took the other side, concerned about the threat of tariffs, an immigration clampdown and frothy markets when investors were focused on tax cuts and deregulation. But prices have moved, and prices matter.
The case for thinking the selloff is overdone is that markets have broadly dropped back to where they were at the election. Some falls are extraordinary: Tesla is down 45% from its high in mid-December. Since its IPO Tesla has fallen more in such a short period only in 2022, when the Federal Reserve was aggressively raising rates.
The Nasdaq 100, dominated by Big Tech, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies were both briefly down more than 10% from their postelection highs on Friday, before Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s reassuring words on the economy prompted a rebound. Both are lower than on Election Day. The S&P 500 didn’t go up so much and hasn’t fallen so much, but is still below where it stood on Nov.
5. This isn’t just about the Magnificent Seven big tech stocks: The equal-weighted version of the S&P is also down. The dollar has dropped sharply but remains slightly above where it stood before the election result, while the Mexican peso is actually stronger than on Election Day.
Read on livemint.com