Credit Suisse on Friday downgraded global equities to “benchmark” rating from “overweight,” citing the need for the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates above market expectations amid higher wage growth in the United States. The brokerage, which cut its rating on global equities for the first time since the peak of the pandemic, said the Fed rates need to be at 1.7 percent for 2022, in line with market estimates. By the end of 2023 it sees the need for the rates to be at 2.5 percent, which is above market expectations. “The Fed has met its twin targets of maximum employment and 2 percent average core PCE [Personal Consumption Expenditures], hence policy should be neutral,” Credit Suisse Analyst Andrew Garthwaite said. He also expects the output gap to have fully closed by the end of 2022, and hence monetary conditions should be “at least neutral.” Garthwaite also argued …