Clarida Traded Into Stocks on Eve of Powell Pandemic Statement
- Disclosures show transactions as Covid-19 fears spread
- Clarida trades were ‘pre-planned rebalancing,’ Fed says
Richard Clarida
Photographer: Sarah Silbiger/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida traded between $1 million and $5 million out of a bond fund into stock funds one day before Chair Jerome Powell issued a statement flagging possible policy action as the pandemic worsened, his 2020 financial disclosures show.
Clarida’s trades, described in forms filed with the government ethics office, show the shifting of the funds out of a Pimco bond fund on Feb. 27, 2020, and on the same day buying the Pimco StocksPlus Fund and the iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor exchange-traded fund in similar dollar ranges. For the year, he listed five transactions.