Fedspeak

Every member that's spoken since the March meeting has expressed both a further desire to be patient on starting rate cuts (in response to the inflation data) and confidence that holding rates steady for longer will, on the margin, come with less downside risk to the labor market.

Fed officials across the board are now saying that the last three months of inflation data have pushed back the timing for rate cuts.

In the wake of a hot CPI print, members openly pushed back the timeline for cuts.

A lot of Fedspeak this week, but not too much new was revealed. Committee members mostly confirmed what we thought their positions were.

A handful of Fedspeak this week. Not much unexpected was revealed.

Light week for Fedspeak after the FOMC meeting and press conference. The only speaker this week was Bostic, who indicated that he projects one cut (two previously).

Powell did his best to be as boring as possible during Humphrey Hawkins, but he distinguished himself from some more hawkish statements from other committee members over the past few weeks.

While no one revealed anything new about their expectations for the timing or size of rate cuts this year, the committee was keen on trying to downplay the hot January 2024 data.

Across the board, from presumed hawks to doves, the message from committee members this week is fairly unified: they are spooked by January's inflation data.