Federal Reserve officials last month affirmed their resolve to bring down inflation and, in an unusually blunt warning to investors, cautioned against underestimating their determination to keep interest rates high for some time.
“They don’t see light at the end of the tunnel yet with inflation,” said Derek Tang, an economist at LH Meyer in Washington. “They’re so alert of financial easing that’s ‘unwarranted’ that the scale should tilt to staying with 50 basis points in February. That’ll drive the message home.” The Fed’s move last month extended its most aggressive tightening cycle since the 1980s. Starting from near zero in March, officials lifted their benchmark lending rate through successive meetings to a target range of 4.25% to 4.5%, the highest since 2007.
A report earlier Wednesday showed that job openings — a key metric for Powell — were little changed at an elevated level in November. US payrolls are projected to have risen by a still-solid 200,000 in December, according to economists polled Bloomberg ahead of the release of the monthly employment report on Friday.
“The sluggish growth in real private domestic spending expected over the next year, a subdued global economic outlook, and persistently tight financial conditions were seen as tilting the risks to the downside around the baseline projection for real economic activity,” they said.