so, ben levinsohn, the markets started in the ugly fashion. it was up on the month of march and upper this past week. are we getting a bounce back? ben: i don't think so but this is unexplainable to me. when i look around at this we see what investors were afraid of, it was inflation. by february it was russia and ukraine, you could chocolate rally up to this cell the rumor by the news except the news keeps getting worse, the war in ukraine keeps going on, inflation isn't letting up and the fed raised rates more than we thought it would. the s&p had its best month since september. jack: we saw some inflation indicators, it doesn't look great. ben: it looks pretty bad. we got cork personal consumption expenditures, the pce is what the fed looks like. it is up 5. 6%. wages going up 5% and the ism manufacturing survey showed prices paid are skyrocketing as new orders are accelerating. none of that is great news about inflation. the fed has a chance of hiking rates at the meeting, 70% chance of 1/2 point rate hike. jack: the cure for high gas price

on "barron's roundtable," ben levinsohn, carleton english and jack hough. you made an interesting comment as we watched stocks plummet on friday and i want you to expand on it. you said the economies too strong for the fed but not strong enough for the market. explained that. >> it comes down to the market saying things like the pmis show the economy is decelerating. we are seeing strength in the job market where jobless claims have been under 200,000 for 29 weeks straight, the longest since 1969, the job growth, wages are the sticky things in inflation. the market is saying we've got to go faster and that stooped the market, the fed will hit the brakes too hard and tighten into recession. ibly15 only these rate hikes were priced in. why did stock investors freak out? >> the idea of a half point rate hike was priced in. they are upping the ante. we have 125 basis points priced in from may and june and this is something st. louis fed chairman or fed president james bullard mentioned with the need for 75 basis point hike and this is something they are pricing

on "barron's roundtable," ben levinsohn, you said the only thing that could save the market would be of tech earnings came in strong, they didn't. >> ugly doesn't begin to describe it. not that earnings were bad, companies beating earnings by 7%. most companies, 80% are doing it. the problem is they are not doing as much as they used to be doing and the guidance isn't great. analyst expectations they have out there are stronger than pre-covid but they are starting to come in and this is sparking the markets and they are wondering where is the growth going to come from. jack: one statistic that's getting airtime is this is the worst start in the market since 1939. should investors lose sleep over what the rest of the year will bring them? >> the stats are interesting. before the late day selloff the worst since the 1970s, people are trotting out comparisons because inflation and this number back in the great depression, better to look at all four month periods and a lot more recent examples to look at, we had with covid and in 2018 when the fed was hiking rates and the market got spoo