Wall Street rebounds as markets adjust to Fed rate rise outlook

Wall Street stocks bounced back and government bonds softened on Monday following tumultuous moves last week after the Federal Reserve took a hawkish shift on interest rates and inflation.

The S&P 500 added 1.2 per cent in early New York dealings. The share index’s resurgence came after it posted its worst performance in almost four months last week in the wake of Fed officials signalling the central bank could raise rates to tame inflation sooner than investors had expected.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond dropped sharply last week as investors viewed the Fed as ready to control surges in inflation that erode the returns from fixed interest securities. On Monday it rose 0.02 percentage points to 1.472 per cent.

Fed policymakers on Wednesday projected that interest rates would rise from record-low levels in 2023, from their earlier median forecast of 2024. James Bullard, president of the St Louis Fed, told television network CNBC on Friday that the first rate increase could come as soon as next year as inflation grew.

However, Gregory Perdon, co-chief investment officer at private bank Arbuthnot Latham, urged caution. “The facts are that the Fed hasn’t done anything yet. Wall Street loves to climb the wall of worry.”

Fed officials’ statements last week prompted fears of rapid policy tightening by the world’s most powerful central bank that could derail the global economic recovery from Covid-19. Investors also backed out of so-called reflation trades, which had involved selling government bonds and buying shares in companies that benefit from economic growth, such as materials producers and banks.

On Monday, however, energy, basic materials and banking stocks were the best performers on the S&P 500. The technology-focused Nasdaq Composite index was also up, gaining 0.7 per cent in early dealings.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller US companies, whose fortunes are viewed as pegged to economic growth, gained 1.7 per cent. Europe’s Stoxx 600 share index rose 0.7 per cent, with materials stocks at the top of its leaderboard.

The yield on the 30-year Treasury briefly fell below 2 per cent on Monday morning for the first time since February 2020 before bouncing back to 2.065 per cent.

Investors last week had taken profits on reflation trades that had become “crowded” and “expensive”, said Salman Baig, portfolio manager at Unigestion.

Baig added that, following the initial shocks after the Fed meeting, markets would probably return to betting on “a cyclical recovery as economies reopen”.

Other analysts said the bond market reaction had been too pessimistic, predicting a broad-based economic slowdown in response to Fed rate increases that had not happened yet.

The fall in long-term yields “is only justified if the Fed is making a policy error, choking the economy”, said Peter Chatwell, head of multi-asset strategy at Mizuho. “We think this is far from the truth — the Fed has simply sought to prevent inflation expectations from de-anchoring.”

Elsewhere in markets, the dollar index, which measures the greenback against other major currencies, dropped 0.3 per cent after gaining almost 2 per cent last week.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, rose 0.9 per cent to $74.18 a barrel.

Additional reporting by Tommy Stubbington in London