  sp 500 futures swing 100 points in premarket trading as investors try to absorb a fire hose of information   as expected the fed keeps rates the same and refuses to adhere to any set schedule   the fed looks to clean up its balance sheet once interest rates start to rise equity index futures were swinging between the positive and negative in premarket trading on thursday the sp 500 futures ranged over 100 points from yesterday’s close to this morning’s action investors are trying to absorb the fed’s wednesday interest rate announcement a trove of earnings reports and some economic news all under the looming market volatility after wednesday’s close tesla tsla reported a record profit but investors appeared unsure if it was “record” enough because the stock bounced around in afterhours trading the biggest issue per ceo elon musk is supply chains and what it might do to hurt tesla going forward as the provider of approximately 75 of electric vehicles sold in the united states this could signal that the inflation issue isn’t going away any time soon a new theme emerging from earnings season is beating on earnings but not beating by enough this appears to be the issue with mastercard ma that beat on both earnings and revenue but fell nearly 2 in premarket trading intel intc which announced betterthenexpected earnings and revenue dropped more than 3 in afterhours trading when the company’s management provided lowerthanexpected forward guidance this could be an interesting development for the semiconductors group after texas instruments txn had a big beat yesterday whirlpool whr missed on revenue but was able to still report much better earnings leading to a 089 rally before the bell blackstone bx rose 493 in premarket trading after reporting its best quarter ever according to blackstone president jon gray the company beat on earnings and revenue and increased its forward guidance on the downside mcdonalds mcd missed on top and bottom line estimates leading to the stock falling 217 in premarket trading despite missing on earnings and revenue mcd saw samestore sales grow from 658 to 75 with help from its new app however rising supply and labor costs were a drag on the company las vegas sands lvs reported a largerthanexpected loss and missed on revenue too but was up 154 in premarket trading after offering an upbeat projection for 2022 after the bell apple aapl will announce earnings obviously this popular company will be a much watched report in economic news the united states saw gross domestic product gdp grow at 69 and well over analysts’ estimates durable goods orders came in on target and so did initial claims sp 500 futures traded a little higher on the news and the cboe market volatility index vix slid a bit lower the problem will likely be hanging on to any gains yesterday the market destroyed a 2 gain in 90 minutes the federal open market committee fomc ended its twoday meeting on wednesday with its customary interest rate decision announcement and press conference after the december consumer price index cpi reported inflation grew at 71 year over year the market started to expect the fed to hike the overnight rate to 025 in march in the announcement the fed stated that it wasn’t going to raise rates as far as ratehike guidance the fed simply reiterated what it has said before that it would “continue to adjust as needed” in a separate announcement the fed said it plans to reduce its balance sheet after it starts hiking interest rates during the press conference chair powell was unwilling to state whether the fed would raise rates each meeting or every other meeting and that it basically wants to keep its options open he did clarify that the committee would defer the decision to raise the overnight rate in march at the march fomc meeting so the market has been projecting three to four rate hikes in 2022 but the fed wasn’t willing to make that commitment however powell didn’t rule out any of these possibilities nor did he rule out raising rates more than a quarter point at a time the fed has stuck with quarterpoint adjustments for more than two decades to keep a measured approach to interest rate changes stocks were volatile before and after the announcement the sp 500 spx rallied higher and then sold off into negative territory however it also trimmed its losses to close just 015 lower on the day the dow jones industrial average dji had another 800point swing before closing just 038 lower on the day the nasdaq composite comp also had major swings of its own ranging 600 points but investors started buying technology stocks leading the techheavy index to close basically flat for the day the 10year treasury yield tnx was relatively flat ahead of the announcement trading around 1785 but rallied soon after climbing to 1848 which is near its previous january highs the fed’s comments and rising yields pushed the dollar higher the us dollar index rallied 060 crude oil prices didn’t appear to be threatened by the fed’s plan to hike rates to take on inflation on wednesday because it rallied more than 26 before the announcement the rally resulted in a new 52week high however the price of oil did pull off its high and closed at 8698 which was still its highest close in seven years the rally in crude also occurred despite an unexpected rise in oil inventories according to the energy information administration’s weekly crude inventory report higher crude inventories tend to be bearish for oil but the russiaukraine crisis appears to be overshadowing inventories rate of change throughout january the yield curve has seen major shifts particularly on the low end the 2month yield rose 50 the 3month skyrocketed 138 the 6month shot up 77 the 1year grew 63 and the 2year rose 31 the remainder of the curve experienced gains but diminished by maturity climbing rates on the short end of the curve reflects the market’s expectations that fed will raise rates sooner the long end of the curve will likely be more influenced by the fed when it starts to reduce its balance sheet by allowing bonds to mature without replacing them and selling bonds the fed was buying longerterm bonds as part of its quantitative easing program to provide liquidity throughout the yield curve and keep rates low however the fed did make it clear that the overnight rate is its primary tool and that over the long run it hopes to only hold treasuries and not mortgagebacked securities changing the sheets the rising shortterm rates have continued to flatten the yield curve when looking at the 2s10s yield spread before the pandemic the yield curve had already inverted which is a precursor to a recession the pandemic pushed the us economy into a short recession but the yield curve normalized and then steepened through april 2021 since that time the yield curve has been flattening but isn’t close to inverting