Why fear is spreading in financial markets
Investors have begun to confront the long-haul reality of high interest rates
According to t. s. Eliot, April is the cruellest month. Shareholders would disagree. For them, it is September. The rest of the year stocks tend to rise more often than not. Since 1928, the ratio of monthly gains to losses in America’s s&p 500 index, excluding September, has been about 60/40. But the autumn chill seems to do something to the market’s psyche. In September the index has dropped 55% of the time. True to form, after a jittery August it has spent recent weeks falling.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Cruel world”
Finance & economics September 30th 2023
- The costs of Russia’s war are about to hit home
- The city that encapsulates China’s economic stagnation
- Investors’ enthusiasm for Japanese stocks has gone overboard
- America’s Federal Reserve could soon be flying blind
- Why fear is spreading in financial markets
- Sri Lanka shows how broken debt negotiations have become
- Why the state should not promote marriage
From the September 30th 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionDiscover more
How China will strike back at Trump
Xi Jinping has set out his tariff red lines. What if America crosses them?
Russia’s plunging currency spells trouble for its war effort
Supplies from China are about to become more expensive
The great-man theory of Wall Street
Why finance is still dominated by bold individuals
Hong Kong’s property slump may be terminal
Demographics and geopolitics will make a recovery harder
Why everyone wants to lend to weak companies
An unanticipated side-effect of Donald Trump’s election victory
American veterans now receive absurdly generous benefits
An enormous rise in disability payments may complicate debt-reduction efforts