Investing.com — Federal Reserve speakers this week will be jostling for the limelight, but there is little chance that they will endorse Fed chairman Jerome Powell’s dovish view from the recent Fed meeting.
“We expect that other Fed speakers this week won’t be – on average – as dovish as Jay Powell was last week,” Macquarie said in a note.
Following the decision to keep rates unchanged last week, Powell said that the next move in policy was unlikely to be a hike, easing fears that the recent string of hot inflation data had forced the fed chief to turn hawkish.
“it is unlikely that next policy rate move would be a hike,” Powell said Wednesday. He acknowledged that progress on inflation had stalled in recent months, hurting the Fed’s confidence to cut, but didn’t signal that the disinflation trend remained intact.
“So far this year, the data have not given us that greater confidence” to begin rate cuts, Powell said Wednesday. It is likely that gaining such greater confidence will take longer than previously expected,” the chief added.
The view that the Fed members aren’t willing to endorse Powell’s dovish narrative was on full displayed yesterday, when Minneapolis Fed’s Neel Kashkari said interest rates may need to be held at current levels for an “extended period”, and “didn’t rule out a hike if inflation stalls near 3%.
While Kashkari isn’t an FOMC voter this year, his view likely carries the same message as the “hawks that do vote, including Loretta Mester, Tom Barkin, Michelle Bowman, and Chris Waller,” Macquarie added.
3rd party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Investing.com. See disclosure here or
remove ads
.
