rates faster than expected. history has shown us when you have a rising rate environment, especially with rates moving faster than expected, that can have an impact on consumer spending. so that of course is a big concern. despite the rebound we re seeing on wall street today, yes, the dow is up about 200 points, nasdaq and s&p 500 higher as well, we re still witnessing one of the most volatile weeks in wall street history with the dow down about 9% just this week. again, on those concerns not just about the economy but rising rates as well. we ve been seeing a lot of volatility in the bond market. one silver lining here that a lot of traders are pointing out is the earnings story. it s been pretty strong. in fact, the companies that have reported earnings in the fourth quarter, hallie, 80% have beat on sales. that s the highest on record since 2006. so that of course is a bullish sign for some of the investors who are waiting on the sidelines wondering if they should get back into thi
don t. experience counts. i think right now we re actually moving away from that. there s more analytics. neil: and the algorithms are trading. and a push of a button and accentuates the wild swings. the higher highs and lower lows. the pendulum swings to the extreme. we had a 1,200 point swing. we ve had that a few times other than one direction. so i think we re in a new normal and this new normal this year will be high volatility. because the fact is, at the end of the day, we don t know where growth will come out. we have a rising rate environment and we don t know whether the corporate tax rate will inpact wages long-term or not. they re unknowns. neil: yeah. a little tough to tell.
you can see in the big picture, all 30 of the dow industrials are in the negative on the session. let me make a point here that is important. you would expect banks in a rising rate environment of higher inflation to do well. because that s good news for their bottom lines. you re not seeing that today. that s really interesting that companies like goldman sachs, j.p. morgan chase, all of the citi group, the big banks now struggling here. you can see visa down. all of these companies struggling now as we start to contemplate what is a world with inflation. we don t know. let me tell you, there s lots of traders that have never seen this. who have no familiarity with inflation or even with incredible economic growth. let s face it. the story in the markets has been that the federal reserve is what makes this economy go, right? they just keep interest rates super low and that allows the economy to grow and people to
we re going to likely see some selling abroad. when i asked about tomorrow, they said likely to see selling in the morning. at that point did it feel like capitulation? we had heavier volume. we sold off 1,100 points last week. another 1,100 points today. if you loved them where they were, you were looking for a place to get in, you get in. ultimately there s the nervousness when we cross the 1,000 point mark. it was so fast. 3:11, 1,600. it was fast and furious. they picked them back up. that s the big picture. you still have the rising rate environment. it s been a great economy. we ve had rising wages and corporate earnings doing better. the big picture here is the feeling that the trend is more likely to still head to the upside. a tough day on wall street to
going forward. higher mortgage rates. will that slow the market at all and not a lot of supply. people can t get in to housing. wells fargo. the fake account scandal revealed six months ago. the bank is struggling to win back customers. credit card applications plunged 55%. customers opened 43% fewer checking accounts. the head of community banking summing it up like this. we have more work to do. wells fargo stock dropped on the news, but look at this. this is the past six months. it has done well since the news broke last september and people lost jobs. stock up 25% over the past six months and trading near record high. banks have done well in general in the economy and because of the rate environment. how much do you have saved for retirement? if it is less than $1,000. you are not alone. that is not good news. long running survey of trends