Equity markets pulled back for another day on Wednesday as fear of the FOMC comes back into play. Comments from Fed Chief Jerome Powell that multiple interest rate hikes were coming caught the market off guard. The comments are identical to the FOMC's policy stance at the last meeting, but the market wasn't buying it for some reason. In the eyes of average investors, the FOMC is close to ending the hiking cycle, which is what matters. The risk in that outlook is that rates are high, inflation is still high, and the economy is on a trajectory that could result in disaster.

Thursday could see the market sell-off accelerate. The catalyst could be the index of leading indicators, which is expected to fall again. This will be the 14th consecutive decline in the index and could be a large one. The trend in the data is more telling and has been making successively larger negative peaks suggesting growing weakness in the economy.