When the Fed Cuts: Lessons from Past Cycles for Investors

The Federal Reserve’s charge cuts in 2024 reignited a debate acquainted to traders: do easing cycles prolong expansions or sign looming recession? With inflation nonetheless a risk, the Fed’s subsequent transfer carries actual penalties for portfolios. Historical past presents a information. Previous cycles reveal how financial shifts have influenced recessions, bear markets, and funding types management, classes traders can use as they navigate in the present day’s late-cycle setting.

Echoing Milton Friedman’s commentary relating to the “lengthy and variable lags” of financial coverage, this submit examines historic Fed charge cycles to evaluate their relationship throughout a wide range of market dynamics.

By analyzing previous information, we goal to supply insights into how financial coverage actions have traditionally influenced yield curves, type management, and financial outcomes — insights that may assist traders interpret in the present day’s cycle.

KEY OBSERVATIONS

Charge Reduce Cycles

Two out of 10 earlier charge minimize cycles prevented a recession, with the 2024 minimize cycle marking the three^rd out of 11, if the recession is prevented within the present cycle.
Fairness type efficiency has been extraordinarily blended after cuts throughout each recessionary and non-recessionary durations.

Charge Hike Cycles

Throughout 12 charge hike cycles since 1965, we now have skilled 10 yield curve inversions and eight recessions, if the present inversion continues to keep away from a recession.
The one hike cycle that included an inversion however prevented a recession was 1966, (just like present interval) coincided with a ~3% deficit/GDP fiscal growth, just like the ~3% fiscal growth over the previous 4 years.

Yield Curve Inversions

The vary of time of a yield curve inversion to market peak was two to fifteen months for the eight out of 9 yield curve inversions that preceded a recession. At the moment, we sit at 35 months.
One earlier yield curve inversion (1966) prevented a recession, and we noticed development, excessive beta, and high quality types main efficiency because the curve normalized, like in the present day.

Determine 1 presents fairness market efficiency throughout three distinct durations following the Fed’s preliminary charge minimize: months one to12, 13 to 24, and 25 to 36. Whereas returns are typically broadly optimistic, the dearth of a constant sample throughout cycles signifies that outcomes are largely influenced by the precise macroeconomic setting through which every easing cycle happens.

Determine 1: High 1000 Returns After Charge Cuts.

When the Fed Cuts: Lessons from Past Cycles for Investors

Determine 2 illustrates the historic relationship between Fed rate-cutting cycles, recessions, and bear markets. Evaluation of 12 distinct cycles reveals that in 10 cases, the Fed initiated charge cuts solely after fairness markets had already peaked, suggesting a lag in coverage responsiveness. Moreover, recessions have usually been recognized by the Nationwide Bureau of Financial Analysis (NBER) with a delay of 4 to 21 months following their precise onset. Notably, because the extremely risky financial setting of the Seventies, the Fed has extra continuously begun charge cuts previous to the formal recognition of a recession.

Determine 2: Federal Reserve Charge Reduce Cycles.

Disclosures: Please see appendix for definitions and citations.

Determine 3 reveals the efficiency of assorted funding types following the initiation of Fed rate-cutting cycles. The info revealed a blended sample of returns, underscoring the idiosyncratic nature of every cycle. One believable rationalization for this variability is that financial easing doesn’t constantly align with fairness market cycles, generally leading to divergent funding type conduct. There simply doesn’t appear to be a connection between rate-cut cycles, recessions, and market danger conduct, making type persistence unimaginable to anticipate.

Determine 3: Type Extra Returns 1-12 months After First Charge Reduce.

Disclosures: Previous efficiency isn’t any assure of future outcomes. All of the returns within the chart above are in reference to unmanaged, hypothetical safety groupings created solely for analytical functions. These are hypothetical types based mostly on describing traits. Please see appendix for definitions and citations. Extra Return is Annualized Return over the High 1000 Portfolio.

Since 1965, there have been 12 distinct rate-hiking cycles, of which eight culminated in recessions, 10 had been preceded by yield-curve inversions, and 9 coincided with bear markets (Determine 4). The median length of those cycles is 18 months, starting from 12 to 39 months, whereas the median enhance within the federal funds charge was 3.75%, with a variety between 1.75% and 13%. The median time from the beginning of a mountain climbing cycle to the market peak previous a recession was 22 months, with a variety of 4 to 51 months.

Determine 4: Federal Reserve Charge Hike Cycles.

Disclosures: Please see appendix for definitions and citations.

Within the majority of rate-hiking cycles, the Fed continued to tighten financial coverage even after fairness markets had reached their peak. This sample reinforces the long-held adage that bull markets will not be ended by previous age, however by the actions of the Fed. Whereas this aggressive stance typically contributes to financial contraction, there are cases the place the Fed has tried to preemptively mitigate recessionary pressures.

In 5 of the eight recessions noticed since 1965, the Fed started chopping rates of interest previous to the official onset of financial contraction, indicating a proactive coverage shift aimed toward cushioning the financial system. Nonetheless, as these 5 episodes illustrate, preemptive charge cuts don’t at all times achieve averting recessions, underscoring the restrictions of financial coverage as soon as broader financial momentum begins to deteriorate.

The efficiency of funding types within the 12 months following the top of rate-hiking cycles has been blended, reflecting the cycle-specific nature of financial coverage and market dynamics. This variability probably stems from financial cycles not constantly aligning with fairness market cycles. Within the Seventies, for instance, the Fed typically transitioned instantly from mountain climbing to chopping charges, making post-hike and post-cut return profiles successfully indistinguishable.

One historic sample that continues is that prime beta shares are usually among the many finest or worst performers and worth and high quality shares are sometimes higher than common and infrequently amongst the worst. This commentary can be persistent following the top of mountain climbing cycles.

Determine 5: Type Extra Returns 1 12 months After Final Charge Hike.

Determine 6: Yield Curve Inversions.

Disclosures: Please see appendix for definitions and citations.

Throughout the 12 distinct financial tightening cycles, 10 had been accompanied by yield curve inversions. Of those 10 inversions, eight had been adopted by recessions, underscoring the predictive energy of the yield curve as a number one financial indicator (Determine 5).

Yield curve inversions have traditionally coincided with each recessions and bear markets. The connection between inversion and market peak various considerably, starting from 12 months previous to the inversion to fifteen months after. This variability highlights the complexity of market responses to financial coverage shifts.

Two rate-hiking cycles — 1984 and 1995 — stand out as exceptions, having achieved “mushy landings” with out both a yield curve inversion or a subsequent recession. Conversely, the 1966 and 2022 cycles skilled yield curve inversions however prevented recessions.

The 1966 cycle is mentioned intimately in our submit, Bear Market Playbook: Decoding Recession Danger, Valuation Affect, and Type Management, the place we attribute the absence of recession to extremely stimulative fiscal coverage. Nonetheless, this coverage backdrop finally contributed to the eventual recession and bear market of 1968.

Parallels could be drawn between the fiscal setting of the mid-Sixties and the present financial panorama. In each durations, elevated deficit spending supported financial exercise. The inversion that started in 2022 ranks because the longest and third most extreme when it comes to length and depth. Regardless of these antagonistic alerts, the US financial system and labor market have demonstrated outstanding resilience.

According to our two prior eventualities, the efficiency of funding types within the 12 months following a yield curve inversion (Determine 7), has exhibited appreciable dispersion, underscoring the cycle-dependent nature of financial coverage and market conduct. Yield curve inversions might sign that the market is getting into the later levels of the financial cycle. In such environments, it isn’t stunning to watch outperformance from high quality and development elements, which traditionally have a tendency to guide throughout late-cycle phases as a consequence of their resilient earnings.

Determine 7: Type Extra Returns 1-12 months After Yield Curve Inversion.

The Fed’s historic rate of interest cycles reveal a constant sample of delayed coverage responses relative to market and financial turning factors, underscoring the “lengthy and variable lags” inherent in financial coverage. Yield curve inversions have confirmed to be a dependable recession indicator, although their timing and market affect stay variable, complicating predictive efforts.

For traders, the file reveals that no single coverage shift presents a transparent playbook. Charge cuts have produced extremely inconsistent type outcomes, underscoring the necessity to look past coverage bulletins to the financial backdrop. Throughout mountain climbing cycles, worth and high quality exposures have traditionally offered steadier efficiency, whereas excessive beta has been a supply of each outsized positive factors and sharp losses. After inversions, development and high quality have typically led, with excessive beta once more including upside potential however at larger danger.

The load of historical past suggests traders ought to view the present easing cycle by way of a late-cycle lens. In 1966, the financial system prevented recession as fiscal growth prolonged development, and related circumstances exist in the present day. If that parallel holds, portfolios tilted towards types similar to high quality and development might proceed to their outperformance, with basic higher-beta publicity being favored throughout types.

On the identical time, inflation stays the swing issue: a renewed rise may power the Fed again to tightening, traditionally creating difficult market environments. For traders, the crucial is to place for resilience whereas staying prepared to regulate if coverage pivots once more.

Appendix & Citations

Figures 2, 4 and 6: Federal Reserve Cycles Information Tables

S&P 500 Index Ranges. FactSet, 2025.
Blinder, Alan. 2023. “Landings, Tender and Laborious: The Federal Reserve, 1965-2022.” Journal of Financial Views — Quantity 37, Number one — Winter 2023 — pages 101–120
Federal Reserve Financial institution of New York. The Yield Curve as a Main Indicator. https://www.newyorkfed.org/analysis/capital_markets/ycfaq.html.
Federal Reserve Board. Open Market Operations. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 18 Dec. 2024. https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/openmarket.htm.
Federal Reserve Board. Modifications within the Supposed Federal Funds Charge, 1971–1992. 29 Aug. 2019. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. https://www.federalreserve.gov/foia/information/20190829-changes-intended-federal-funds-rate.pdf
Nationwide Bureau of Financial Analysis. US Enterprise Cycle Expansions and Contractions. https://www.nber.org/analysis/information/us-business-cycle-expansions-and-contractions.
U.S. Bureau of Financial Evaluation, Actual Gross Home Product [GDPC1], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Financial institution of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/collection/GDPC1, Could 1, 2025.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (US), Federal Funds Efficient Charge [FEDFUNDS], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Financial institution of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/collection/FEDFUNDS, September 5, 2025.

Figures 1, 3, 5 and seven: Efficiency Charts

Information Supply: Compustat
Calculation: Hartford Fairness Modeling Platform

Type and Time Interval Definitions:

Worth: US prime 1000 shares prime 30% based mostly on composite worth as outlined by a number of equally weighted valuation metrics to reach at an aggregated valuation metric. Valuation metrics embody: P/E, EBITDA/EV, working money move/EV, income/EV, and B/P Yield (used solely in financials and actual property as a alternative to EBITDA/EV), then cap weighted.
Low Volatility: US High 1000 Shares prime 30% based mostly on a Composite Volatility rating outlined by a number of equality weighted volatility metrics to reach at an aggregated volatility metric. Volatility metrics embody three 12 months weekly beta and six-month day by day customary deviation, then cap weighted.
Excessive Volatility: US prime 1000 shares backside 30% based mostly on a composite volatility rating outlined by a number of equality weighted volatility metrics to reach at an aggregated volatility metric. Volatility metrics embody three 12 months weekly beta and six-month day by day customary deviation, then cap weighted.
Dividend: US prime 1000 shares prime 30% based mostly on trailing 12-month dividend per share divided by present share worth, then cap weighted.
High quality: US prime 1000 shares prime 30% based mostly on gross earnings to belongings, then cap weighted.
Progress: US prime 1000 shares prime 30% based mostly on 5 years gross sales development, then cap weighted.
SMID: US mid-sized and small-cap shares representing the smallest 15% and 13% of shares respectively, excluding the very smallest 2% that are labeled as microcap, then cap weighted.
Mega/Giant: US mega and huge market cap shares with mega cap representing the biggest 40% and huge cap representing the following largest 30% of the universe, then cap weighted.
High 1000: US High 1000 shares, cap weighted.
Yield Curve Inversions are outlined by the 10-year Treasury yield minus the three-month Treasury yield.