News this week that inflation eased more than expected in October solidified the view that the Federal Reserve is done with its most aggressive rate-hike campaign in four decades.
And that could be a boon for the stock market and your 401(k).
Over the last 10 rate hike cycles dating to 1974, the S&P 500 index rose an average 14.3% in the 12 months following the Fed’s final rate increase, according to an analysis by Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group.
By comparison, the index’s average return through 2022 is 7.5% over five years, 10.4% over 10 years, 7.5% over 30 years and 10% over the last century, according to NerdWallet.
The message?
Investors really like it when the central bank stops beating them over the head with rate hikes.
What happens when the Fed hikes rates?
Rate increases push up the cost of mortgages, car loans, credit card purchases and other loans, dampening economic activity and eating into corporate earnings, Detrick notes. They also make stocks a relatively less appealing investment than bonds, which entail less risk for a now rising yield.
The pain, of course, is ostensibly for a good cause – wrestling down inflation that could become entrenched and, at least according to the Fed, wreak even more damage.
Halting rate hikes does the reverse, brightening the economic outlook and making stocks more attractive than bonds. It also removes a big cloud of uncertainty from the market, says Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial.
Is the stock market recovering?
From the day the Fed began lifting rates in March 2022 through this past Monday, the S&P 500 has had some wild swings but ultimately arrived at a standstill at 4,411. Yet since the Labor Department released the favorable consumer price index report early Tuesday, the benchmark stock index has risen more than 100 points, or 2.3%.
“If July was the last hike, which we think it was, stocks historically do quite well a year after that final hike,” Detrick says.
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LPL Financial’s Turnquist called it a “catalyst for the equity market.”
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