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\\n\\t* The U.S. stock market finished up its worst week since August, when everybody though a rate hike was just around the corner
\\n\\t* Substantial triple-digit losses across the board
\\n\\t* The Dow Jones closed down 309 points - almost 4%
\\n\\t* Similar percentage decline for the S&P 500
\\n\\t* The NASDAQ dropped 111 points, over 4% decline for the week
\\n\\t* The media is blaming this decline on oil prices, and yes, oil prices are weighing on some stocks
\\n\\t* Some stocks benefit from lower oil prices - case in point: transportation
\\n\\t* Dow Transport was weaker than any other index - down more than the markets on a percentage basis
\\n\\t* The truth is that oil prices and stock prices are going down for the same reason
\\n\\t* The reason is a slower growing global economy, including the U.S. economy, and the fact that the Fed is threatening to slow it down further with an interest rate hike
\\n\\t* Some of biggest losers are not even in the stock market, but in the bond market
\\n\\t* The high-yield bond market is getting obliterated
\\n\\t* A chunk of the high yield market is energy companies
\\n\\t* Two things are hurting them: the fear of rising interest rates and the slowing of the U.S. economy
\\n\\t* We are heading for a recession, if we are not already in one
\\n\\t* This does not bode well for the high-yield bond market, because in a recession these companies will have more trouble servicing their debt
\\n\\t* The Fed\'s monetary policy of zero percent interest rates forced a lot of Americans into these high-yield bonds - people are hungry for yield
\\n\\t* A lot of risky companies who did not have access to credit, were able to borrow all sorts of money because of this hunger for yield
\\n\\t* This is the same thing that happened in the sub-prime market
\\n\\t* Customers all over the world needed yield, and the mortgage market was where they got it
\\n\\t* There was so much demand for mortgage debt on Wall Street it was easy for non-credit-worthy customers to get a loan
\\n\\t* The same thing is happening in this high-yield market. Carl Icahn was on CNBC on Friday morning, referring to the present situation as a "power keg"
\\n\\t* It is a powder keg that the Federal Reserve created and in theory they will light the match if they raise interest rates next week
\\n\\t* In fact in my last podcast I mentioned that for the first time, the Fed might actually raise rates, and I received quite a few comments asking me if I was ready to admit that I was wrong
\\n\\t* The Fed is trying to change the nature of a rate hike - alter the narrative away from normalization to a one-and-done scenario
\\n\\t* Markets anticipate future events and they price them in, so the beginning of the tightening - "liftoff" I felt markets would look toward the eventual destination and start pricing that in.
\\n\\t* None of the markets can handle that
\\n\\t* So the Fed assured the markets that liftoff didn\'t matter because the first hike will be small and the trajectory will be very low
\\n\\t* That\'s why I called it a trial balloon.\\xa0 The Fed wanted to see how the markets would respond to a tiny, symbolic rate hike just to prove we can do it, and then a long period of time, before another one, if there is another one
\\n\\t* Initially it looked as if the markets was buying the idea, but remember I kept saying there is time, and the markets could decline - in fact that is already happening
\\n\\t* Maybe the Fed\'s trial balloon is not going to go over very well
\\n\\t* We had a "Black Monday" in August prior the potential September rate hike
\\n\\t* We have another Black Monday coming up - the technicals on the market look awful
\\n\\t* We could have a huge decline on Monday, and you\'d better believe the stock market is going to be high on the Fed\'s agenda
\\n\\t* When the Fed called off the rate hike last time and we got a huge bounce in the stock market