CNN cut away from President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act party Tuesday as anchor Alisyn Camerota commented it is “hard to be celebratory” with inflation hurting Americans financially.
Biden hosted a celebration of the passage of the bill mere hours after August’s Consumer Price Index report showed inflation rose to 8.3% last month compared to last year. The number was much higher than expected.
The report sparked a selloff on Wall Street that likely resulted in retirement accounts everywhere being ravaged. The Dow Jones Industrial Average took a more than 1,200-point beating to lose around four percent.
CNBC reported:
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1,276.37 points, or 3.94%, to close at 31,104.97. The S&P 500 dropped 4.32% to 3,932.69, and the Nasdaq Composite sank 5.16% to end the day at 11,633.57.
Just five stocks in the S&P 500 finished in positive territory. Tech stocks were hit particularly hard, with Facebook-parent Meta skidding 9.4% and chip giant Nvidia shedding 9.5%.
The Dow had its worst day since 2020.
In spite of the news of the report and a panicked day of selling stocks for many Americans, the White House celebrated with music from James Taylor followed by a speech from Biden.
A few moments into the president’s remarks, which were being carried by CNN Newsroom, the network cut away.
Camerota noted:
Okay. Listening there to President Biden at the White House. He’s celebrating the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. He says that he’s been fighting big pharma for decades, but there is the unfortunate split screen right now with the Dow taking a total beating, down 1,200 and so it feels like it’s hard to be celebratory for some people.
Victor Blackwell noted the Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates in response to the CPI report.
Watch above, via CNN.
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