FOMC

Jay Powell

No Action From Fed – But They May Not Have The Luxury Of Inaction For Longer

Monex Europe | The FOMC kept rates unchanged, extended its swap facility, and added language to its statement emphasizing that the path of the US economy depended heavily on the path of the virus. In our view, outcome-based forward guidance is likely as early as September, when the FOMC will have a new batch of projections, as well as hard data indicating the costs of the second wave of COVID-19 infections.


US monetary policy: pragmatism as new guidance

US Monetary Policy: Pragmatism As New Guidance

Financial markets expect the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to raise its federal funds target rate on Wednesday for the fourth time this year, by 25 basis points (i.e. between 2.25% and 2.50%). Looking ahead, the FOMC will likely revise its “dots” lower for 2019, while the Fed will emphasise data dependence as relevant for its policy stance, rather than guidance by FOMC ‘dots’.


Fed monetary policy

FED, ECB monetary policy: communication counts when doubts increase

The minutes released by the FED and the ECB last week shared concern about how to inform about their monetary stance. They fear unsettling the markets should investors wrongly interpret the messages conveyed to them.  When you lack a clear policy perspective, the best thing you can do is to manage communication in a fairly tight way.





DirtyMoneyTC

The Fed’s prestige is constantly being eroded

Why does the Fed continue to be a glutton for punishment, repeatedly announcing for over a year that it is going to raise interest rates, then having to put the decision on hold? Yet again it has announced it will have to hike rates before end-year, possibly twice, and perhaps, once more, it will have to back down.


FedTC

Fed minutes show division over rate hike timing

The minutes of the FOMC’s policy meeting July 26-27 showed voting members were split over whether to raise US rates soon. The majority of the committee believe more macro data is needed before hiking rates, but some expect a move will be needed sooner rather than later. 


President Trump is right: The Federal Reserve is a big problem

The Federal Reserve Loses Its Nerve

The recent disclosure of the April FOMC minutes has come as a shock. Investors expected a cautious wait-and-see stance by the Federal Reserve at that meeting. But now we discover that a majority of its members openly supported a rate hike at the June gathering, should macro-economic delivery prove reasonably upbeat.


fedNY

Nowcasts

James Alexander  via Historinhas | As the FOMC increasingly avers that it is data-driven the demand to have better data has led to greater focus on aggregated current data. Whether the FOMC really looks at it, given it is ignoring its own Labour Market Conditions Index, is hard to say.