Ken Griffin , founder and CEO of Citadel, said Thursday he’s uncertain that the stock-market rally can keep chugging along as the economy starts to feel the pain from rate hikes. “I’m a bit anxious that this rally can continue,” Griffin said on CNBC’s ” Squawk on the Street. ” “Obviously one of the big drivers of the rally has been … just the frenzy over generative AI, which has powered many Big Tech stocks… We’re sort of in the seventh or eighth inning of this rally.” The S & P 500 has rallied 17% this year, driven by megacap technology names, many of which are tied to the artificial intelligence boom. Massive winner Nvidia is up more than 200% in 2023, topping a $1 trillion market cap. The billionaire investor said he’s surprised by the strength of the market, especially when the Federal Reserve is in the middle of its most aggressive tightening campaign since the early 1980s. The central bank has taken the fed funds rate to the highest since 2007. “We’ve seen an increase in real rates and nominal rates, and yet the stock market’s been resilient,” Griffin said. “So that’s a really interesting year to see the resiliency of our stock market against this backdrop that would usually be very challenging for equities.” He thinks that the market might have a hard time maintaining its solid 2023 gains as the negative effects of rate hikes starts to emerge. Griffin believes that there’s a small chance of one more rate increase later this year. “It takes about a year to two years for an interest rate hike to work its way through the economy. It’s not instantaneous,” Griffin said. “We’re now at the point where we’re gonna see the impact of these hikes really start to play out we’re seeing the job market starting to weaken.” Unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 3.8% in August, up significantly from July and the highest since February 2022.
