Wall Street Bears Take Revenge After a $7 Trillion Rally

A sober warning for Wall Street and beyond: The Federal Reserve is still on a collision course with financial markets.

Stocks and bonds are set to tumble once more even though inflation has likely peaked, according to the latest MLIV Pulse survey, as rate hikes reawaken the great 2022 selloff. Ahead of the Jackson Hole symposium later this week, 68% of respondents see the most destabilizing era of price pressures in decades eroding corporate margins and sending equities lower.

A majority of the more than 900 contributors, who include strategists and day traders, reckon inflation has topped out. Still, a whopping 84% say it may take two years or longer for the Jerome Powell-led central bank to bring it down to the official long-term target of 2%. In the meantime, American consumers will cut spending, and unemployment will climb over 4%.

All these bearish sentiments underscore the deep skepticism held by investors in the face of an unexpected $7 trillion equity rebound of late. While stocks fell last week, S&P 500 has still trimmed its 2022 loss to 11% versus the 23% decline through its mid-June nadir. US futures have opened the week lower in Asia trading.