S&P 500 Sank as Fed Raised Rates

Rising rates of interest during the last yr have taken a toll on the S&P 500, amid a few of the most aggressive price hikes in three many years.  

The benchmark index is down 7.9% since Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell introduced the primary of a collection of fund price will increase one yr in the past. The S&P 500 closed Tuesday at 4,002.87, down greater than 16.5% from the document excessive set in December 2021, however nonetheless up 14.7% from its most up-to-date low.

The drop got here partly as a result of the Fed raised charges eight occasions during the last yr, shifting from close to zero in March 2022 to 4.5% in February 2023, with merchants indicating one other 25-basis level hike is probably going Wednesday. 

After dropping charges to close zero in the course of the pandemic, the Fed raised charges for the primary time in three years, saying the transfer was wanted to cease climbing inflation. Whereas hikes in rates of interest don’t at all times correlate to losses in inventory market indexes, analysts usually look to the Fed’s actions and projections when setting their very own outlooks for market efficiency.

Some financial indicators transfer extra in synchronization with the Fed’s fund price adjustments, like bank card rates of interest, which have largely mirrored the speed’s regular rise. However as a substitute of shifting in tandem with the Fed’s price hikes, the S&P 500 sea-sawed its means down, earlier than rebounding from a latest low in September 2022.

Market analysts usually use the route of federal funds price adjustments to assist set their future outlooks. In January, J.P. Morgan’s 2023 market forecast predicted that the S&P 500 would achieve floor by year-end-but provided that the Fed places a cease to its price hikes.

“Over the previous yr, the Fed has been compelled to tighten aggressively, outpacing each tightening cycle during the last three many years,” J.P. Morgan wrote. “Within the first half of 2023, the S&P 500 is predicted to re-test the lows of 2022, however a pivot from the Fed might drive an asset restoration later within the yr, pushing the S&P 500 to 4,200 by year-end.”