During Fed Chair Powell’s testimony to the Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, he said that it will likely be appropriate to begin cutting rates “at some point this year”. At the same time, he reiterated the message that other Fed officials sent to the markets that the Fed is not ready yet. The messaging has been the same and uniform by almost all speeches by Fed officials. The economy and labour market are strong. Central bankers have time to wait for more evidence that inflation is headed back to the 2% goal before cutting rates.
Market expectations of the timing of the initial rate cut have evolved from March to May in the past few weeks. At the same time, stock prices have rallied and they rallied in response to Powell’s testimony.
Doesn’t Fed policy matter to stocks anymore?
The full post can be found here.
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