Next Fed Move Could Be a Rate Hike--Not Cut, Analyst Says
Scott Reeves
Robert Weissenstein, chief investment officer for Private Banking Americas at Credit Suisse, told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” that he expects the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates unchanged for the immediate future, but the next surprise could be an increase--not a cut.
“Our thesis is the Fed doesn’t have to do anything for quite sometime,” Weissenstein said Monday. “It could stay neutral as long as the numbers come in--earnings are decent and we’ve got a stable economy. We started the year off with decelerating growth, which is not a recessionary environment. Our outlook is for reacceleration as we get later in the year...The next surprise, rather than a cut, could, at some point, be an increase. We're not there yet in terms of timing.”
A rate hike might boost the markets because it would show that the Federal Reserve is aggressively fighting inflation.
Benjamin Pace, chief investment officer at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management, said the Federal Reserve would need to see slower economic growth and a decrease in the core rate of inflation before cutting interest rates.
