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The Economics of the Fed Put

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  • Cieslak, Anna
  • Vissing-Jørgensen, Annette

Abstract

Since the mid-1990s, low stock returns predict accommodating policy by the Federal Reserve. This fact emerges because, over this period, negative stock returns comove with downgrades to the Fed's growth expectations. Textual analysis of the FOMC documents reveals that policymakers pay attention to the stock market, and their negative stock-market mentions predict federal funds rate cuts. The primary mechanism why policymakers find the stock market informative is via its effect on consumption, with a smaller role for the market viewed as predicting the economy.

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  • Cieslak, Anna & Vissing-Jørgensen, Annette, 2020. "The Economics of the Fed Put," CEPR Discussion Papers 14685, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14685
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    3. Ricardo J. Caballero & Alp Simsek, 2020. "Monetary Policy and Asset Price Overshooting: A Rationale for the Wall/Main Street Disconnect," NBER Working Papers 27712, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Broeders, Dirk & de Haan, Leo & Willem van den End, Jan, 2023. "How quantitative easing changes the nature of sovereign risk," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
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    6. Arina Wischnewsky & David‐Jan Jansen & Matthias Neuenkirch, 2021. "Financial stability and the Fed: Evidence from congressional hearings," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(3), pages 1192-1214, July.
    7. Kuhn, Moritz & Bartscher, Alina & Schularick, Moritz & Wachtel, Paul, 2021. "Monetary policy and racial inequality," CEPR Discussion Papers 15734, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Luis Felipe Gutiérrez & Neda Tavakoli & Sima Siami-Namini & Akbar Siami Namin, 2022. "Similarity analysis of federal reserve statements using document embeddings: the Great Recession vs. COVID-19," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(7), pages 1-28, July.
    9. Möller, Rouven & Reichmann, Doron, 2021. "ECB language and stock returns – A textual analysis of ECB press conferences," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 590-604.
    10. Gómez-Cram, Roberto & Grotteria, Marco, 2022. "Real-time price discovery via verbal communication: Method and application to Fedspeak," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(3), pages 993-1025.
    11. Kurov, Alexander & Olson, Eric & Zaynutdinova, Gulnara R., 2022. "When does the fed care about stock prices?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    12. Yifei Wang & Toni M. Whited & Yufeng Wu & Kairong Xiao, 2022. "Bank Market Power and Monetary Policy Transmission: Evidence from a Structural Estimation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(4), pages 2093-2141, August.
    13. Difang Huang & Yubin Li & Xinjie Wang & Zhaodong (Ken) Zhong, 2022. "Does the Federal Open Market Committee cycle affect credit risk?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 51(1), pages 143-167, March.
    14. Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Tho Pham & Oleksandr Talavera, 2021. "Central Bank Communication on Social Media: What, To Whom, and How?," Discussion Papers 21-05, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    15. Gu, Chen & Chen, Denghui & Stan, Raluca & Shen, Aizhong, 2022. "It is not just What you say, but How you say it: Why tonality matters in central bank communication," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 216-231.
    16. Schmeling, Maik & Schrimpf, Andreas & Steffensen, Sigurd A.M., 2022. "Monetary policy expectation errors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(3), pages 841-858.
    17. He, Zhiguo & Nagel, Stefan & Song, Zhaogang, 2022. "Treasury inconvenience yields during the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 57-79.
    18. Abdi, Farshid & Kormanyos, Emily & Pelizzon, Loriana & Getmansky, Mila & Simon, Zorka, 2021. "Market impact of government communication: The case of presidential tweets," SAFE Working Paper Series 314, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, revised 2021.
    19. Sofiane Aboura, 2022. "A note on the Bitcoin and Fed Funds rate," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(5), pages 2577-2603, November.
    20. Shan, Chenyu & Tang, Dragon Yongjun & Wang, Sarah Qian & Zhang, Chang, 2022. "The diversification benefits and policy risks of accessing China’s stock market," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 155-175.
    21. Ifrim, Adrian, 2023. "Stock Price Wealth Effects and Monetary Policy under Imperfect Knowledge," EconStor Preprints 268307, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    22. Davide Romelli & Hamza Bennani, 2021. "Disagreement inside the FOMC: New Insights from Tone Analysis," Trinity Economics Papers tep1021, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fed put; Monetary policy; stock market; Textual analysis; Taylor rules;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies

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