Barclays Pushes Fed Hike Call To March From September

Economists at Barclays Capital have pushed out their call for the first Federal Reserve interest-rate hike to March 2016 from September. "Although we continue to see economic activity in the US as solid and justifying modest rate hikes, we believe the Federal Reserve is unlikely to begin a hiking cycle in this environment for fear that such a move may further destabilize markets. Instead, we believe the FOMC will delay the start of the rate hike cycle beyond September as a means to offset tighter financial conditions while it evaluates the effect of recent volatility," the economists wrote.