Are We Going to Have a Severe Recession?

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq Composite leading to the downside with a 3.0% loss two hours short of the close of the day’s regular trading, the S&P 500 off 2.1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower by 1.6%. Today’s selling reflects concern about growth in the face of what seems to be inexorable inflation, as widespread COVID-19 testing in Beijing augurs a lockdown of the biggest city in the world’s second-largest economy. Concerning the war in Eastern Europe, Moscow will stop sending natural gas to Poland on Wednesday, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned there’s a “serious” risk of nuclear war over Ukraine. The Federal Reserve’s increasingly hawkish tone is having its effect, as mortgage rates have moved sharply higher. Home prices are still rising, but new home purchases slipped 8.6% to a 763,000 annualized pace. Mortgage refinance demand is also slowing rapidly. “But there's all this pent up demand they said... not at higher rates there isn’t,” notes Steven Van Metre. Van Metre, founder of Steven Van Metre Financial, says interest rates will eventually go down again, to new record lows, as a simple matter of supply and demand. He joins Maggie Lake for today’s Real Vision Daily Briefing to talk about growth, inflation, and the trajectory of interest rates. Want to submit questions? Drop them right here on the Exchange: https://rvtv.io/3vhH31G

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices