Powell Doesn’t Have to Go Full Volcker for Stocks to Drop

Rhetoric emanating from the Federal Reserve hasn’t been so hawkish in decades. Investors, especially in stocks, are probably too complacent. 

The Fed on Wednesday raised the benchmark federal-funds rate by three quarters of a percentage point, to a range of 3% to 3.25%, as expected. Fed policy makers’ projections for rates at the end of this year also rose: Their median forecast is now that the federal-funds rate will reach 4.4% by then.