Buffalo News – Many investors have been pushing their “sell” buttons in recent weeks, shedding global stocks, debt and other assets on fears of rising inflation, higherinterest rates and slower economic growth this year.
This marks a reversal for hedge funds, mutual funds and other big market players whose enthusiasm earlier this year helped push prices up sharply for oil, copper and other raw materials; U.S. stocks; and riskier assets in developing economies, or “emerging markets.”
Oil traded above $75 a barrel in late April, and the Dow Jones industrial average hit a six-year high in early May. At its peak on May 8, Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc.’s emerging-markets index was up 25 percent this year.
Those lofty prices reflected investors’ expectations then that the world’s major central banks would nudge interest rates up a little this year, keep inflation low and fuel continued healthy global economic growth. But signs of climbing consumer prices have clouded that profitable scenario, roiling financial markets and driving asset prices lower worldwide.
