Prof Jonathan Newman: A Stock Market Tumble Is the Correction We Need

Since hitting rock bottom in 2009, stock prices have consistently increased without much volatility — that is, until these first few days of February when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 2,200 points (-8.5%) and the S&P 500 tumbled 7.9% from their late-January highs. The most popular measure of stock market volatility, VIX, also spiked dramatically to levels not seen since 2011 and 2009.

Financial analysts and writers have pointed to a few events that may be behind the big movements in the stock market:

Frank Newman: Interest rates and MP houses

As expected, last week Reserve Bank Governor Graeme left the official cash rate (OCR) unchanged at 1.75%. What was unexpected was the tone of the comments made in the Monetary Policy Statement that went with it.

That surprise was evident in the reaction of the foreign exchange  market where the Kiwi dollar fell a cent against the Australian and US currencies. That reaction was because the "market" had been expecting interest rates to rise faster than the Governor is now forecasting.