Robert Armstrong

Well, I think with the route on Friday, you have to distinguish...

between the proximal cause and the ultimate or underlying cause.

The proximal cause is that we got the third consecutive quite strong monthly jobs report that show some life in the jobs market.

And when the economy is suddenly humming and we have a little bit of an inflation problem, it is very hard for the Federal Reserve to justify a cut in rates and they may even be pushed.

into raising rates.

And stock markets do not like higher interest rates.

But I would say there is a more significant underlying cause, like one rate increase between friends.

It's not going to change the picture all that dramatically.

I think this is a case where a very, very strong market that had been rising powerfully now for quite a while.

And when markets get that much momentum, you get these events where it's like the market needs to take a breather.

I would think of it like this.

Everybody is paying very high prices for stocks right now.

They're chasing the price of the stock market up.

And along comes Elon and says, you know what?

I'm going to add even more supply of stocks.

right?

He's going to give investors more things to spend money on.

And so there is a worry that the demand that is absorbed by the SpaceX IPO goes missing from other stocks that have been rising recently.

So the shadow of that IPO makes the stuff I talked about earlier, the anxiety about AI, uncertainty about its economic prospects,

Even worse.