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Fear about a Federal Reserve rate hike sent stocks lower Friday, but next week investors are going to refocus on China—which will be the key driver of equity prices over the next couple of
months, according to noted strategist Russ Koesterich. The main concern will be about the country's economic growth, as opposed to its tumultuous stock market since very few people
outside of China own A-shares, he said. "It's more about what does the economy look like, and how will China's slowdown affect the rest of the global economy,"
BlackRock's global chief investment strategist said in an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell." China's slowing economic growth has been blamed, in part, for the
recent market rout. However, on Friday the "decent" U.S. jobs number raised the possibility that the Federal Reserve is still likely to raise interest rates this year despite the
global economic slowdown and falling inflation expectations, Koesterich explained. Why we moved to 100% cash: CIO This obscure market is pointing to more pain for stocks U.S. stocks closed
about 1 percent lower Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 272 points after earlier falling 348 points. The closed on the edge of correction territory. The Nasdaq composite and
Dow ended in the correction space. Mainland Chinese stock markets were closed for a four-day weekend and are set to reopen Monday. Koesterich said there's a reason investors are
reacting "violently" to a possible rate increase. "If the Fed were to hike, they'd be hiking in an environment where inflation expectations are falling. That means real
rates are rising faster than nominal rates. In the past, that's been when you've seen the more severe corrections in equity markets." As for how much further stocks can still
fall, he thinks it's possible equities will revisit the lows from a couple of weeks ago, when the market corrected about 10 percent. _—CNBC's Evelyn Cheng contributed to this
report._ _Disclaimer_