Inventory traders liked Alan Greenspan as a result of the insurance policies he pursued throughout his tenure as chair of the US Federal Reserve benefited the fairness markets. No less than that was the traditional knowledge.

However did the markets replicate this narrative on days when Greenspan testified earlier than Congress? Did they have a tendency to go up as we might anticipate, or did their efficiency contradict the narrative? And the way did the markets reply when Jerome Powell and different Fed chairs testified? What does their habits reveal about how they assessed every Fed chair?

To reply these questions, we pulled S&P 500 and MSCI market and asset class knowledge for all dates on which the final 5 Fed chairs testified earlier than Congress and in contrast the outcomes with each day by day common returns and common return volatility.

To raised isolate market sentiment round every Fed chair, we didn’t embrace Fed charge announcement days in our evaluation. The Fed had already communicated its charge selections to the general public prior to every Fed chair’s congressional look, and the market had presumably taken the choice — to hike, maintain, or scale back charges — into consideration.

So, how did the markets reply to the testimony of every Fed chair? Had been there any standouts or surprises?

Because it seems, Janet Yellen generated probably the most optimistic returns on the times when she testified relative to the 4 different Fed chiefs. On common, the S&P 500 rose 0.20% when Yellen spoke and solely 0.08% when Greenspan testified.

On the opposite finish of the spectrum, days when Ben Bernanke or Powell testified are related to extra detrimental inventory market efficiency. The S&P 500 returned –0.05% on common on days when Powell or Bernanke appeared earlier than Congress. After all, Bernanke helmed the Fed in the course of the world monetary disaster (GFC) and Powell throughout a interval of resurgent inflation. So, the bearishness they evoked is probably not particularly shocking.

Fed Chair Congressional Testimony Common Returns: One-Day Window (%)

We see comparable outcomes play out throughout small-cap and worldwide equities in addition to worth and development, with Yellen testimony days yielding higher returns than Greenspan’s. We repeated our checks over a three-day window across the Fed chairs’ congressional testimony and once more generated qualitatively comparable outcomes.

Bonds advised a distinctly completely different story, nonetheless. Whereas equities outperformed when Yellen testified, mounted revenue went in the other way, with the whole bond index returning –0.05% on days when Yellen appeared earlier than Congress.

Volatility was one other datapoint we explored, with Bernanke testimony days displaying probably the most volatility total.

Commonplace Deviation of Returns round Fed Chair Testimony Days

Of all of the Fed chairs, Yellen generated probably the most optimistic inventory market reactions and the least volatility over the previous 50 years, whilst bond traders tended to reply negatively to her testimony.

In any other case, each Powell’s and Paul Volcker’s tenures featured numerous rate of interest hikes in response to rising inflation. The weaker efficiency of equities on their testimony days might replicate how the markets got here to affiliate them each with greater charges.

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All posts are the opinion of the writer(s). As such, they shouldn’t be construed as funding recommendation, nor do the opinions expressed essentially replicate the views of CFA Institute or the writer’s employer.

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