Fed officials attempt to reassure markets that US is not headed for recession

Bank presidents Austan Goolsbee and Mary Daly

Two senior officials at the US Federal Reserve have attempted to calm markets after investors triggered a global equity sell-off, fuelled by concerns that the central bank had left its rate cutting too late and had been sluggish to respond to signs the US economy was weakening.

On Monday (5 August), markets saw some of the biggest falls since Black Monday, with volatility reaching levels last seen in the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the March 2020 Covid sell-off. Japan's Topix index led the rush and fell more than 12% at the open while and the US Nasdaq 100 dipped as low as 6% on the day, but recovered two thirds of this in time for the close, according to data from Bloomberg. Japanese index suffers worst ever fall as traders rattled by potential US recession The S&P 500 was down more than 2% with its darling-Magnificent Seven stocks seeing $2.3trn wi...