Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - The bear is roaring

With a deafening roar, the US stock market ran headlong into bear territory, the S&P sinking 20% below a January peak and hitting its lowest mark since the previous January. Tech shares bore the brunt of the Monday rout, with the Nasdaq 100 slumping about 4.5%. Speculative areas of the market inflated by years of government largesse buckled as profitless software firms, newly public companies and blank-check entities were unceremoniously dumped. Credit markets continued their historic repricing of rate trajectories: Treasury 10-year yields climbed to the highest since 2011 while two-year rates jumped to levels last seen before the 2008 financial crisis. The cost to protect investment-grade debt from default soared as a closely watched segment of the US bond curve inverted. And Bitcoin took another dive, tumbling to its lowest point in about 18 months after withdrawals tied to the Celsius lending platform were frozen. Only the dollar provided some respite. With the Federal Reserve positioned for an assault on high inflation fueled in part by Russia’s war and supply chain chaos, Victoria Greene, chief investment officer at G Squared Private Wealth, said the bottom is still a ways off. “It’s going to get a little uglier,” —Natasha Solo-Lyons

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

The “big lie” begat the “big ripoff,” according to the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee on its second day of public hearings in Washington. Donald Trump not only ignored aides who repeatedly told him there was no significant fraud in the 2020 election, witnesses and lawmakers alleged on Monday, but he eagerly propagated the lie to fleece unsuspecting followers out of millions of dollars.

Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol, speaks during a hearing in Washington on Monday. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

For years, the adage “Don’t fight the Fed” meant only one thing: buy stocks. These days, and especially after Monday’s bloodbath, legions of new investors who have never faced inflation before are learning it can mean something else, too. A booming economy, record low unemployment, strong earnings estimates and flush consumers aren’t enough to counter a panicky Wall Street running scared.

Foreign-exchange volatility is back with a vengeance as central banks look to rein in inflation by raising interest rates. With the Fed leading the charge, the dollar is off to its best start to a year since 2010, extending its gains over the past 12 months to more than 22% versus the yen and 15% against the euro.

Russia continued its assault on Sievierodonetsk, pushing Ukrainian troops out of the city center and their last major foothold in the eastern Luhansk region. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the fighting “very fierce,” and the regional governor said Russian troops now control 80% of the city. Moscow’s use of cluster munitions and indiscriminate shelling in Kharkiv constitutes a war crime, Amnesty International said Monday. 

A house burns after being shelled during an artillery duel between Ukrainian and Russian troops in Lysychansk, in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, on June 11. Photographer: Aris Messinis/AFP

The US government, however, is quietly encouraging agricultural and shipping companies to buy and carry more Russian fertilizer in a bid to combat spiraling global food costs.

The World Health Organization is weighing an official name change for monkeypox after more than 30 international scientists said the label is discriminatory and stigmatizing. So far, an outbreak of the disease has infected almost 1,300 people in more than two dozen countries. 

Single-family landlords in the US are eyeing opportunities in the slowing housing market, betting lower demand from consumers will lead builders to offer discounts.

• Bloomberg Opinion: At last, a bipartisan effort on gun safety.
• Property values fall across US, Europe thanks to inflation.
• China alarms US with private warnings to avoid the Taiwan Strait.
• Bond yields, dollar surge with Fed bets as recession fear grows.
• Crypto market sinks below $1 trillion after latest DeFi blowup. 
• Google suspends engineer who claimed AI bot had become sentient.
• Murder-suicides by pilots are vexing airlines as deaths mount.

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman joined the growing club of financial industry bigwigs warning of recession. Gorman put the odds at about 50%. “It was inevitable this inflation was not transitory, it was inevitable the Fed would have to move faster than they were projecting,” he said at a conference Monday.

James Gorman  Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg

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