It’s looking like another dreary day for equities so far. Meanwhile, gold and silver are mixed…crude oil is modestly higher…and Treasuries are rallying again.
The stock market has been struggling for a few weeks now, with the S&P 500’s 3.1% decline last week the worst weekly drop in six months. Now, stocks are sliding again in the wake of media interviews suggesting the Trump Administration won’t let short-term market turbulence derail its long-term economic and political plans.
On Friday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged there could be a “natural adjustment as we move away from public spending.” But he added that investors should prepare for a “detox period” – and said “there’s no put” coming from President Trump.
SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY)
Put options are used to protect against downside market moves. Many investors had assumed Trump would dial back tariff threats if markets fell (or in colloquial terms, give investors a “put” against further losses). But Bessent’s comments suggest otherwise.
For his part, the president told Fox News on Sunday that Americans should prepare for a “period of transition because what we’re doing is very big.” He added that “you can’t really watch the stock market” and declined to rule out the possibility of a recession this year. The dollar has been diving and Treasury yields have been dropping due to rising worries about economic weakness.
Finally, we got a modest-sized “Merger Monday” deal in the real estate sector. Rocket Cos. (RKT) announced plans to buy Redfin Corp. (RDFN) for $1.75 billion. Rocket is a Detroit-based fintech and mortgage lending firm, while Redfin is a real estate listing platform. The all-stock offer price of $12.50 per share is more than double where RDFN closed on Friday.
