This Week's Global Wind Vane: Elections and the Fed's Interest Rate Decision! How Can We Seize Opportunities?
2024-11-04
This week, the US election and the interest rate meeting coincide.
Firstly, the Federal Reserve is highly likely to approve a rate cut of 25 basis points in the upcoming meeting.
Although the Federal Reserve appears calm on the surface, economists widely predict that the Fed will broadly
agree on a rate cut of 25 basis points, bringing the interest rate to a range of 4.5%-4.75%.
Lindsey Piegza, Chief Economist at Stifel Financial, believes that the divisions within the Federal Reserve are much greater than
what the public knows. Piegza points out that some officials are concerned about the still high inflation rate and are cautious
about rapid rate cuts; while others are more worried about the weakness in the labor market, which increases the necessity for further significant rate cuts.
"One could almost say that the Federal Reserve is clearly divided in its dual mandate." Due to the uncertain economic outlook,
the Federal Reserve is, to some extent, in uncharted territory.
Secondly, regarding the US election. Recently, investors' expectations for Trump's victory have decreased.
Andrey Alipov, a trader at Goldman Sachs, believes that the most profitable investments currently are to increase holdings in renewable energy
and Asian stocks— the market previously overestimated the expectation of Trump's victory, and if Harris can reverse the situation,
these two types of assets are expected to achieve a significant rebound.
Alipov points out that due to the market's insufficient expectation of a "Democratic victory, divided government" scenario,
in the US stock market, those sectors that may benefit from Harris's victory, such as renewable energy, companies facing trade barrier risks,
and healthcare, deserve investors' attention. These sectors may have been overly suppressed in price due to the expectation of Trump's victory.
Currently, Polymarket predicts the probability of Trump being elected at about 66% (this does not mean that Trump
is leading in the polls by 66%, but indicates that people participating in political betting estimate Trump will win in 66
out of 100 election simulations), while models based on polls show that the victory probabilities of both candidates are almost the same.
Historically, regardless of who ultimately wins, the S&P 500 index usually rises by 4-5% in November and December after the election.
Therefore, Alipov believes that, in order to diversify the investment portfolio and prepare for a possible medium to long-term rebound,
it is valuable to increase investments in the "Harris victory" scenario.