Worries on Fed Move Pound Stocks, Bonds
A sharp pullback in global stock and bond markets has highlighted investors' worries about economic-growth prospects as the Federal Reserve prepares to trim its stimulus spending.</br></br>The selloff this past week evoked the market rout of May and June, when investors were similarly concerned about the Fed's next move. Now, many investors are bracing for the central bank to rein in its $85 billion-a-month bond-purchase program as early as next month, even as recent data paint a mixed picture for the health of the U.S. economy.</br></br>"There will likely be some pain in the short term" for stock and bond investors if the Fed trims its bond buying, said Larry Milstein, head of government and agency trading at R.W. Pressprich & Co. in New York.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 344.04 points, or 2.2%, for the week, and the 10-year Treasury yield shot to a two-year high as bond prices tumbled. On Friday, the Dow finished down 30.72 points, or 0.2%, at 15081.47.</br></br>The S&P 500 index logged its biggest weekly drop since June and has dropped three of the past four weeks.