Emotion is driving this round of stock selling

Wall Street veterans are used to waiting out turbulence, but the frenzy engulfing equities right now is starting to strain their patience.

Bad days are coming in waves. Of the five worst sessions since 2015, two have come in the last two weeks, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average erasing gains for the year on Wednesday. While futures are pointing to a potential reprieve, stocks have dropped in 13 of 15 days, matching a streak seen only once since 2000.

The pros are perplexed — why now? Everyone knows stocks can go into free fall over nothing, but conditions in the economy and Corporate America seem so good. “I have a hard time explaining this,” said Patrick Palfrey, equity strategist at Credit Suisse. “There isn’t a single item that is the smoking gun behind the sell-off.”

The Federal Reserve has raised rates eight times, taking them to barely 2 per cent, and suddenly that’s way too much. Eleven per cent earnings growth? No longer enough. “The market is starting to believe that we won’t have any growth at all next year and that’s just wrong,” said Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer at Voya Investment Management. “It’s getting to a point where it’s overdone.”