USA: Wall Street in free fall as investors sell everything

Traders are hitting the sell button on virtually every key asset class — including stocks, bonds and bitcoin — ratcheting up the fear factor on Wall Street and sending the S&P reeling to its weakest levels in a year.

Why it matters: The Federal Reserve is laser-focused on taming inflation, and that’s making markets increasingly jittery as the U.S. economy sends mixed signals on growth. While we've seen the economy contract last quarter, the jobs market remains as robust as it’s ever been.

Meanwhile, however, China’s extraordinary push to tamp down COVID infections via lockdowns has sparked

This time it’s really different: The Fed’s pivot from super-accommodative to a “fire and brimstone” approach (in the words of JPMorgan global strategist Marko Kolanovic) to price pressures has sparked market volatility for weeks. But spiking bond yields, which are reacting to inflation and Fed expectations, underscore how government paper has relinquished its traditional role as a safe-haven when stocks are in turmoil.

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