Adena Friedman, CEO & Board Chair NASDAQ, talking on CNBC’s Squawk Box on the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. sixteenth, 2024.
Adam Galici | CNBC
Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman believes the Federal Reserve should be cautious of reducing rates of interest too quickly.
Speaking at a CNBC-moderated panel on the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Friedman stated Tuesday that whereas “there are a lot of indicators that might say that there should be rate [cuts] as we undergo the 12 months, the query is once they would begin. And if I have been the Fed, I might be a little involved about starting too early.”
She defined that whereas inflation was heading within the “proper course of journey,” the Fed would additionally anticipate this to average, making it tougher to carry charges down.
Friedman stated that the U.S. central financial institution “additionally need to make it possible for they really feel that they’ve gotten to a state of stability across the rate earlier than they begin making important strikes within the curiosity rate area.”
The Fed held rates steady in December for the third time in a row, protecting the benchmark in a single day borrowing rate in a focused vary between 5.25%-5.5%. Federal Open Market Committee members indicated that three rate cuts might be on the playing cards in 2024.
Between March 2022 and July 2023, the FOMC enacted a run of 11 rate hikes to fight spiraling inflation.
‘More confidence available in the market’
As markets look to foretell when rates of interest would possibly be minimize and when the price of capital would possibly fall, she stated that traders might begin to suppose about how they mannequin firm earnings sooner or later extra efficiently.
In addition, figuring out that inflation is coming down and that the price of enterprise is moderating, would additionally give firms extra confidence, Friedman stated.
“So I believe all of that builds extra confidence available in the market, which in fact does present up available in the market values,” she stated.
Friedman stated that whereas market efficiency was “high heavy” final 12 months, a broader-based enchancment in valuations was rising, together with in lesser-valued firms.
“I believe that’ll additionally drive an curiosity in traders wanting to place danger capital to work, which implies … we might even have the IPO (preliminary public providing) market open again up once more,” she stated, including that round 85 firms had filed to go public on the Nasdaq.
