Powell Warns S&P 500 Valuations Fairly High at 7,580 as Warsh Readies First FOMC

On May 31 the S&P 500 closed at 7,580.06 after former Fed Chair Jerome Powell issued a rare public warning that equity prices are 'fairly highly valued,' echoing Greenspan’s 1996 remark. The caution follows a week of warnings about AI-driven job cuts, youth unemployment at 10.4 percent, and investor focus on five structural themes including giga-cap concentration and the renewed importance of earnings revisions, buybacks and dividends. Powell’s comments arrive just days after Kevin Warsh was sworn in as the new Fed chair on May 22, with his first FOMC meeting scheduled for June 16.