Stocks Rally After Fed Rate Hike as Oil Prices Fall
Left 25%
Center 0%
Right 75%
1 left · 0 center · 3 right
What happened
On Thursday, U.S. stocks rose in morning trading a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in three years. The S&P 500 gained about 1 to 1.2 percent, the Nasdaq Composite about 1.3 to 1.6 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added roughly 300 to 450 points, reversing much of Wednesday’s decline, when the Dow fell more than 630 points, or 1.2 percent. Treasury yields eased, with the 10-year yield slipping to about 4.95 percent after touching 5.02 percent the day before, while U.S. crude briefly fell below $100 a barrel and Brent crude dropped into the low $100s. Fed officials’ projections showed most of the 18-member committee expected at least one additional increase this year; Chair Kevin Warsh spoke afterward. Weekly jobless claims fell to their lowest level since July, and the Bank of England left its rates unchanged.
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Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Left-leaning coverage never lets the president speak about the hike, so readers get a Fed that simply defied him. Coverage on the left, including NBC News, repeats an economist's line that the Warsh Fed "defied the Trump administration" and stops there. The New York Post instead reports Trump saying he is relying on the chair and blaming the board.
Right-leaning coverage says oil merely "dipped" and keeps the barrel near triple digits. Left-leaning coverage reports that crude broke a level it had held since mid-September and that gasoline still rose the same morning, even as stocks treated cheaper oil as a reason to buy.
None of the coverage asks how much of Thursday's bounce came from falling oil rather than from relief that the Fed meeting was over.
Bottom line
You can read NBC News on the rally and never learn that Trump told Warsh to vote with the board. The defiance line is there; the president is not.
The receipts — 1 fact one side's coverage lacks
- National average gasoline rose 7 cents Thursday to $4.43 a gallon
The Left View
NBC News framed the move as following a hike “in a bid to rein in rising inflation,” and highlighted praise that Warsh’s press conference was “coherent, confident and consistently hawkish without coming across as crazily so” after earlier remarks had “confused investors.” Commentators said the Fed “defied the Trump administration and preserved its credibility by following through on earlier signals” and “threaded the needle very well.” CNBC called it a “comeback kind of day,” with lower yields and oil “supporting stocks.” NBC tied oil’s decline partly to a report that President Donald Trump would discuss the Iran war with Gulf leaders at the United Nations and to unconfirmed reports of a Saudi pipeline restart, while noting a $4.43 national average for gasoline and $6.39 for diesel, and cautioning that “Thursday’s market optimism could be short-lived” because officials signaled they likely need to hike again this year and possibly early next year.
The Right View
The New York Post cast the session as Wall Street bouncing back from a “steep sell-off,” quoting an investment officer that stocks had “the clarity needed from the Federal Reserve to resume their rally” because the hike was “already priced into the markets.” Coverage stressed that higher rates “could raise borrowing costs on mortgages, auto loans and credit cards — hitting consumers who are already struggling with a tight housing market and sky-high gasoline prices,” and that another increase at the October meeting, days before November midterms, “could invite blowback from President Trump” over affordability. Trump “decried the rate hike” but “notably refrained from attacking Warsh personally,” blaming “a very tough board” and posting that rates “should be 1%, or less.” Analysts warned reduced forward guidance “could lead to more stock market volatility ahead of future meetings.” OAN said falling oil and easing yields helped stocks recover much of the week’s losses.
Our Take (balanced)
Left-leaning outlets’ strongest argument is that the rebound reflected confidence in an independent, inflation-focused Fed: they cite market praise for Warsh’s “coherent, confident” press conference and claims the committee “defied the Trump administration and preserved its credibility” by delivering a hike it had signaled. Right-leaning outlets’ strongest argument is that the bounce mainly cleared uncertainty around a move already “priced into the markets,” while households still face high gasoline prices, weaker consumer sentiment, and costlier borrowing — a squeeze Trump underscored by demanding rates of “1%, or less” and blaming the Fed board. The central unresolved tension is whether Thursday’s gains primarily show investors accepting a hawkish Fed as a stabilizer, or whether they mask a conflict between fighting inflation and the household cost-of-living pressures both sides describe.
5 sources
- Our top 10 things to watch in the stock market Thursday
- Stocks and bonds rally after Fed hikes rates and oil prices fall
- Stocks rise as Wall Street bounces back from Fed sell-off; oil dips
- Dow jumps over 300 points as Wall Street bounces back from Fed sell-off; oil dips
- US stocks jump after oil prices fall and pressure from the bond market eases
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