Market volatility is not over: Wall Street strategist

Finance news

Thursday’s roller-coaster ride on Wall Street was the market’s attempt to assess risks, said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of Datatrek Research.

“The underlying tone of the market is one toward volatility,” the Wall Street veteran told CNBC on Thursday.

“The market is worried about a bunch of different factors, some of which are political and others are things like rates and energy prices,” Colas said on “Closing Bell.”

But, he said, “We haven’t seen peak volatility for the year by any means.”

The market ended a four-day losing streak on Thursday after the Dow Jones industrial average rebounded from a loss of nearly 400 points midday. The index closed up 5.17 percent at 23,930. The S&P 500 closed 0.23 percent lower at 2,629.73, after falling as much as 1.6 percent in early-morning trading.

Market watchers should expect more volatility through the rest of 2018, especially in August and October when the market tends to peak, Colas said.

This week’s trip to China by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other Trump administration officials, along with possible oil price increases, have added to investor fears.

But Colas said “the stock market shouldn’t care all that much. Until something affects consumer confidence or interest rates or global growth, it really shouldn’t really matter to fundamentals.”

Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James, said the economy is “stronger than a garlic milkshake” and the secular bull market should continue for several years. But, he said, he does think politics plays a role in how the market moves.

“I think the thing that affected the markets today is [that] Mnuchin and Larry Kudlow … were getting the stiff-arm from China, and there was some worry about that,” Saut said on “Closing Bell.”

Link to the source of information: www.cnbc.com