It was a big week for interest rates. Here’s what you need to know

By CNN Newsource

Published September 22, 2023 5:36 AM

Analysis by Krystal Hur, CNN

(CNN) — Central bank officials around the world relayed a somewhat unified message this week to the global economy: Inflation is coming down, but the battle is far from won.

Some of the world’s most prominent monetary policy leaders announced their latest decisions in their respective fights against persistent inflation. Most held rates steady, taking a breather from a historic pace of interest rate hikes to stabilize skyrocketing prices.

Here’s a breakdown of what happened.

United States: The Federal Reserve in September paused interest rates for the second time after first hitting the brakes in June. The central bank has hiked rates 11 times since last March. Its latest set of economic projections showed that more officials expect the Fed’s key lending rate to reach a range of 5.63%-5.87% this year — in other words, the central bank could hike rates one more time by year’s end.

The Fed also expects fewer rate cuts next year than previously expected, and lifted its expectation of economic growth this year while slightly lowering its unemployment rate projection.

“Monetary policy might be close to where it needs to be, but the current inflation data shows that the conditions are not quite there,” said Brian Henderson, chief investment officer at BOK Financial.

United Kingdom: The Bank of England halted its rate hiking cycle on Thursday for the first time in nearly two years. That comes after inflation declined unexpectedly last month and keeps the main borrowing cost for UK commercial banks at its highest level since 2008. But the Bank of England didn’t take future rate hikes off the table, stating that signs that inflation isn’t abating further could lead to more increases.

“Odds are the bank is done here, with policymakers downplaying [average weekly earnings] wage data and putting the onus of proof on the data to justify more tightening,” Evercore ISI strategists wrote in a note Thursday.

Switzerland: The Swiss National Bank left its policy rate unchanged at 1.75% on Thursday after five straight hikes but didn’t rule out future rate hikes if prices don’t continue to stabilize.

What does it all mean? While central banks took steps to pause interest rates this week, they kept future hikes on the table.

That means that stubborn inflation is still a global problem despite the progress that’s been made, says Nate Thooft, chief investment officer of multi-asset solutions at Manulife Investment Management.

His firm has a slightly outsized allocation in US stocks, since both the economy and corporate earnings have held up so far this year, but is considering trimming some of its exposure later if the tide shifts.

“There’s a real likelihood to get some volatility where you might get some rolling corrections in the equity markets,” said Thooft.

TikTok was built off of Black creators. Black employees say they faced discrimination

Nnete Matima said she was attracted to work at TikTok because of how the social media platform was “really built upon Black culture” and the work of Black creators, report my colleagues Catherine Thorbecke and Clare Duffy.

She saw and welcomed TikTok’s public pledge of support for the Black community in the wake of the 2020 police murder of George Floyd and applied to work for the company because she felt its corporate values “really resonated with me,” Matima told CNN.

Shortly after she began working at TikTok-parent company ByteDance last year, however, she alleges she encountered “toxicity and racism” in the workplace. Her manager would refer to her as a “black snake” behind her back and set unrealistic and uneven expectations for her compared to her white peers, Matima claims.

The mistreatment only got worse, she said, after she spoke up about it via human resources channels.

US home prices continued to climb in August, even as sales dropped

Home prices continued to climb in August, even as home sales dropped, according to a monthly report from the National Association of Realtors. That’s a result of the low inventory of homes for sale pushing prices up and stubbornly high mortgage rates keeping buyers out of the market, reports my colleague Anna Bahney.

The median price for existing homes — including single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops — was $407,100 last month. That was up 3.9% from a year ago when the median home price was $391,700. Prices rose in all four regions of the country, the Northeast, Midwest, South and the West, the NAR report found.

The month before, in July, prices also went up, reversing five months of year-over-year declines. The median price in August was the highest price of any August on record and the fourth highest of any month.