Stocks fall, yields rise after Fed signals rate hike 'soon'

Friday, January 21, 2022, Vol. 46, No. 3

An early market rally gave way to a broad slide for stocks and a surge in bond yields Wednesday after the Federal Reserve signaled it plans to begin raising interest rates "soon" to fight a spike in inflation that the central bank says is probably getting worse.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell took repeated questions about how and when the Fed will start letting its balance sheet shrink after buying trillions of dollars of bonds through the pandemic.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2% after giving up an early gain of 2.2%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.86%.