CO-MOVEMENTS OF THE PRIME RATE,CD RATE,AND THE S&P FINANCIAL STOCK INDEX

We examine the relation among the prime lending rate, certificate of deposit rate, and the S&P Financial Stock Index using cointegration and error correction modeling techniques. We find that these three financial time series share a long-run cointegrating relation. Subsequent vector autoregressive error correction results imply that the movement of these stock prices toward eliminating disequilibrium is about 1 percent within the first month. Impulse response functions indicate that changes in the deposit rate have a larger effect on changes in the price index of financial service sector stocks than do changes in the lending rate.