It was another high wire act for markets Wednesday.
The catalyst for plunging prices was surprising lower Retail Sales (-0.9% vs -0.1% expected & prior revised sharply lower from 0.9% to 0.4%).
This undid Yellen’s December 17th comments that declining energy prices would be a bonus to American consumers.
Wall Street bulls interpreted this “happy talk” to mean consumers would be running to the malls and online outlets to spend the new found wealth. But her and their bullish pundit credibility were quickly vanquished and stock fell accordingly. It’s not a good thing for the nation’s chief economist to lose his or her credibility since a lot is on the line going forward especially should it be compromised.
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