San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said lately that the Federal Reserve may need to cut interest rates in the coming months due to a weakening labor market, despite near-term inflation pressures from tariffs.
“The labor market has softened. Additional slowing would be unwelcome, as once it stumbles, it tends to fall quickly and hard,” Daly said in a speech in Alaska, as quoted on Yahoo Finance. Recent data shows the U.S. added only 73,000 jobs in July, with the unemployment rate rising to 4.2%. Prior job gains in May and June were revised downward, dragging the three-month average to just 35,000 — an indication of slowdown in hiring.
While Daly indicated that tariffs will push inflation higher in the short term, she doesn’t expect the effect to be lasting. Daly noted that underlying inflation, excluding tariffs, has been gradually falling and should continue to do so with the ongoing restrictive monetary policy and a slowing economy.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell last week emphasized that no decision has been made about a potential rate cut in September, pointing to the need to closely monitor the impact of tariffs. Meanwhile, New York Fed President John Williams said the job market remains “solid” but admitted the downward revisions in hiring are concerning, as quoted on Yahoo Finance.
Growth stocks perform better in a low-rate environment. Low rates reduce the cost of borrowing, often needed to finance the expansion of companies. Lower rates reduce the attractiveness of fixed-income investments like bonds, leading investors to seek higher returns in the equity markets. Growth stocks, with their potential for high returns, become more appealing to investors in this environment, driving up demand and, consequently, their prices.
Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few top-ranked growth-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that can be tapped, if the Fed starts cutting rates soon.
Vanguard Growth ETF VUG – Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy)
Invesco S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF RPG – Zacks Rank #2 (Buy)
Invesco Large Cap Growth ETF PWB – Zacks Rank #1
Vanguard S&P 500 Growth ETF VOOG – Zacks Rank #1
iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF IVW – Zacks Rank #1
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