A Stock Market Malaise With the Shadow of ’70s-Style Stagflation
The New York Times
After coasting higher over the summer, markets are jittery over rising prices, growth snarls and a number of other threats.
Vaccine mandates seem to be working, younger children may be approved for shots by Halloween, and the coronavirus appears to be in retreat. But those hopeful signs herald a messy new phase for the country’s economic recovery — and that’s putting Wall Street more on edge than it’s been in months.
The Federal Reserve has signaled it will begin dialing back programs that have helped prop up the markets for the past 18 months, while the breakneck pace of economic growth seems to be slowing, a fact underscored by last week’s disappointing jobs report.
And price increases that grew out of pandemic-related shutdowns and supply chain disruptions have been stubbornly persistent. A key measure of inflation released Wednesday, the Consumer Price Index, climbed 5.4 percent in September when compared with the prior year — more than expected in a Bloomberg survey of economists and faster than its 5.3 percent increase through August.
