The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) share price is among a raft of financial shares climbing today amid interest rate speculation out of the United States.
Shares in the banking giant are swapping hands at $28.41 in afternoon trade, up 2.64% on yesterday's close.
Joining the ANZ bank in finishing the week on a high is the S&P/ASX 200 Financials Index (ASX: XFJ), up 2.1% at the time of writing.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) shares are currently trading 2.65% higher while National Australia Bank Ltd. (ASX: NAB) shares are climbing 1.48%. Meanwhile, the Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) shares are up 1.58%
The US-based big banks followed a similar trend overnight, with New York Stock Exchange shares in Bank of America Corp up 2.01%, Wells Fargo & Co climbing 2.56% and Citigroup rising 3.28%.
Let's take a closer look at what may be impacting investor sentiment today.
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Are interest rates on the rise soon?
The ANZ Bank has not released any news to the market today. However, interest rate speculation from the United States could be playing into the share price rise.
According to news reports, the US Federal Reserve is considering fast-tracking interest rate rises this year to March.
The Wall Street Journal reported rates could be lifted "sooner or at a faster pace than participants had earlier anticipated". In fact, the publication reported the Fed could raise its rates up to three times this year.
Global central banks including the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) are known to take their lead from the US Federal Reserve. As my Foolish colleague Bernd noted this morning, investors have been keeping a close watch on the Fed for this reason.
Any movement from the RBA leads to the banks lifting their interest rates too. Interest rate hikes help banks improve their profit margins on loans.
In December, the RBA kept interest rates constant at 0.1% but removed the note that it would keep them at this level until 2024.
ANZ share price recap
The ANZ share price has soared more than 20% in the last 12 months, outperforming the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) by about 9 percentage points.
In the past week, ANZ shares have gained 2%, while they are up 5% in the past month.
The bank commands a market capitalisation of more than $80 billion based on the current share price.
