This year has been challenging for the stock market, primarily due to the multi-year high inflation and the interest rate hikes imposed by the Fed to tackle it. The Fed’s six rate hikes to curb the stubbornly high inflation have triggered broad market sell-offs this year.
However, the central bank’s aggressive stance looks to be paying off as inflation eased in October, with the consumer price index (CPI) rising 7.7% year-over-year and 0.4% sequentially, below analyst estimates. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell recently indicated that the Fed might implement a 50-basis-point rate hike this month.
