Two Fed Bank Presidents: June Rate Hike Still Possibility
You are missing trading opportunities:
- Free trading apps
- Over 8,000 signals for copying
- Economic news for exploring financial markets
Registration
Log in
You agree to website policy and terms of use
If you do not have an account, please register
Two regional Fed bank presidents expressed Tuesday openness to raising interest rates at the June meeting of the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee, but neither committed to supporting a rate hike just yet.
"It think certainly could be a meeting at which action could be taken," Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart said of the upcoming June 14-15 meeting.
"It's a little early, looking at second quarter data to draw a conclusion," he said on a panel discussion hosted by Politico. "I'm at this stage sort of inconclusive on how I'm going to be thinking about June. But I wouldn't take it off the table."
San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams agreed it will be a "live meeting" but also said he hadn't yet made up his mind. "The actual data has been quite good and reassuring in terms of policy decisions," he said on the same panel discussion.
"My view is that June is a live meeting," he said. "We'll have great discussion. We're going to get lot more data between now and then and we'll do all our homework and analysis."
The U.S. economy is "in position to continue to engage in the normalization of monetary policy," Williams said, though he did point out more than once during the discussion that the next meeting after June is only "six week later" referring to the July 26-27 meeting.
Lockhart also said the markets, with less than 20% expecting a rate hike in June, "may be more pessimistic than I am."
Neither Lockhart or Williams are FOMC voters this year, but Lockhart is largely seen as a centrist on the committee in line with Fed Chair Janet Yellen's thinking on most issues and Williams served as Yellen's top advisor when she was head of the San Francisco Fed.
read more