Don’t rock the boat. This was the motto as FOMC hiked charges by one other 25 bps on Wednesday, reaching a 22-year excessive as anticipated. Throughout the subsequent press convention, Fed Chair Powell caught to his earlier remarks with out veering off beam. Whereas the present market sentiment suggests no additional price hikes, Powell emphasised that core inflation remained unacceptably excessive, and the Fed remained dedicated to its 2% goal.
The overarching message conveyed was that the Fed would stay knowledge dependent. Thursday morning introduced a deluge of financial knowledge, all pointing in direction of the resilience of the American economic system. GDP, Sturdy Items, and Pending Dwelling Gross sales all shocked to the upside, indicating a willingness amongst Individuals to spend. Concurrently, the labor market continued to thrive, with Preliminary Jobless Claims coming in softer than anticipated. Powell’s insistence on the Fed being knowledge dependent and the robust knowledge launched lower than 24 hours later raises the query of whether or not the Fed may go towards the market consensus and take into account one other price hike within the fall.
