Has the Fed “Missed the Boat”?

October 08, 2015

The wait for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates seems to be endless. Unemployment has fallen below the Fed’s desired level and inflation — when adjusted for the drop in oil prices — is just under target. At the beginning of this year, many predicted September would be the right time for it to finally happen. Even with bad news coming out of China and other parts of the world hurting domestic financial markets, until the actual meeting, economists were still split on whether there would be a rate increase. But, clearly, there wasn’t.

Data suggests that a rate hike by the Fed in September would have been poor timing. Initial rate increases generally occur during periods of strong earnings growth. But for the past year, earnings have been relatively flat, and with global economies struggling this trend doesn’t seem likely to change. Additionally, after a rate increase valuations tend to fall. With the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the S&P 500 dropping from 18.6x to just under 17x in the last two months stock prices have already undergone a sizeable correction. Any Fed action at this point in time would likely only lead to further losses.