FOMC Preview

September 21, 2022

In the race of central bankers around the world to get ahead of the inflation-reduction curve, the Federal Reserve had been neither the least aggressive nor most aggressive monetary institution in shifting from a very accommodative stance to one that goes beyond mere neutrality to eventual restraint. Quantitative stimulus has given way to a program of Fed balance sheet reduction, and four straight hikes in the federal funds target range have been engineered already. However, the initial move of 25 basis points was way too tepid, and ensuing increases of 50 basis points in May and 75 basis points in both mid-June and late July left the range at 2.25/2.50% still far below the latest inflation readings (6.3% total and 4.6% core on the PCE price deflator; 8.3% total and 6.3% core on the consumer price index; and 8.7% total and 7.3% core for U.S. producer prices).

Other developments also give urgency to the need to tighten a lot further. Whereas long-term price expectations have stayed reasonably well-anchored, short-term price expectations are rising. The U.S. labor market remains very tight. Non-farm payroll jobs expanded by a larger-than-expected 315k last month after jumping 526k in July and 293k in June. Last week witnessed the fewest new jobless insurance claims since the week of May 28. Average hourly wage earnings posted another on-year advance of more than 5.0% in August. FOMC minutes and comments from Fed officials (even ones thought to be on the dovish end of the spectrum) suggest that labor market indicators will have a heavy influence over forthcoming interest rate decision.

To be sure, rising long-term interest rates, declining equity prices, and dollar appreciation are supporting the Fed’s objectives, but now is not the time to get complacent, either throttling the incremental interest rate hike or signaling a pause in upcoming meetings to take better stock of the impact of monetary restraint thus far. On the contrary, a surprise 1.0 percentage point rate hike now might be just what the patient needs. Investors widely expect a third straight 75-basis point increase instead, but the stickiness of labor market indicators and measures of short-term price expectations suggests that consumers, businesses, unions, and investors need more persuading that officials are prepared to crush growth for up to a year if that’s what it takes to obliterate any notion of a new higher normal on what constitutes acceptable inflation.

EUR/$ $/JPY 10Y, % DJIA Oil, $
06/30/04 1.2173 109.44 4.63 10396 37.95
06/30/05 1.2090 110.89 3.96 10370 57.00
06/29/06 1.2527 116.07 5.20 11077 73.41
06/28/07 1.3452 123.17 5.10 13456 69.82
08/07/07 1.3749 118.55 4.73 13510 72.27
09/18/07 1.3888 115.75 4.51 13475 81.42
10/31/07 1.4458 115.28 4.42 13873 93.59
12/11/07 1.4682 111.49 4.11 13645 89.78
01/30/08 1.4792 107.31 3.70 12454 91.70
03/18/08 1.5786 98.73 3.41 12257 107.53
04/30/08 1.5562 104.58 3.83 12953 111.54
06/25/08 1.5568 108.37 4.18 11837 133.62
08/05/08 1.5445 108.42 3.97 11484 119.82
09/16/08 1.4144 105.16 3.36 10936 91.18
10/08/08 1.3625 99.87 3.50 9447 87.02
10/29/08 1.2933 97.15 3.81 9145 67.38
12/16/08 1.3790 90.14 2.52 8687 44.14
01/28/09 1.3253 90.01 2.61 8356 42.92
03/18/09 1.3115 98.13 2.94 7340 47.73
04/29/09 1.3331 97.06 3.02 8194 51.05
06/24/09 1.3984 95.43 3.59 8373 68.76
08/12/09 1.4221 96.17 3.71 9366 70.64
09/23/09 1.4779 91.50 3.50 9859 69.13
11/04/09 1.4884 90.75 3.51 9896 80.66
12/16/09 1.4542 89.78 3.56 10478 73.14
01/27/10 1.4045 89.49 3.61 10148 73.31
03/16/10 1.3756 90.64 3.67 10645 81.45
04/28/10 1.3157 94.10 3.75 11043 82.57
06/23/10 1.2284 90.12 3.13 10307 76.50
08/10/10 1.3107 85.85 2.81 10605 79.94
09/21/10 1.3132 85.21 2.66 10747 73.05
11/03/10 1.4059 81.35 2.53 11174 84.59
12/14/10 1.3423 83.37 3.38 11497 88.47
01/26/11 1.3658 82.55 3.41 12001 87.36
03/15/11 1.3969 81.04 3.29 11815 98.09
04/27/11 1.4665 82.63 3.36 12612 112.48
06/22/11 1.4392 80.12 2.97 12175 94.87
08/09/11 1.4234 77.09 2.36 10993 81.76
09/21/11 1.3778 76.34 1.93 11377 86.74
11/02/11 1.3724 78.11 2.03 11805 92.77
12/13/11 1.3067 77.92 1.98 12130 100.20
01/25/12 1.3027 77.96 1.97 12670 98.85
03/13/12 1.3096 82.76 2.08 13044 106.34
04/25/12 1.3226 81.37 1.97 13096 104.13
06/20/12 1.2693 79.28 1.66 12837 83.63
08/01/12 1.2300 78.10 1.49 13028 88.98
09/13/12 1.2895 77.43 1.72 13342 97.60
10/24/12 1.2948 79.75 1.77 13115 85.72
12/12/12 1.3082 83.24 1.70 13325 87.13
01/30/13 1.3584 91.16 2.02 13949 97.63
03/20/13 1.2948 95.65 1.94 14497 92.82
05/01/13 1.3195 97.48 1.62 14740 90.47
06/19/13 1.3364 95.76 2.23 15304 98.38
07/31/13 1.3301 97.92 2.67 15565 105.63
09/18/13 1.3363 98.28 2.76 15606 107.01
10/30/13 1.3764 98.18 2.48 15660 97.42
12/18/13 1.3696 103.81 2.89 16198 98.06
01/29/14 1.3651 102.13 2.73 15719 97.23
03/19/14 1.3918 101.75 2.71 16335 99.96
04/30/14 1.3868 102.11 2.66 16553 99.52
06/18/14 1.3584 101.93 2.61 16892 106.12
07/30/14 1.3372 102.84 2.51 16878 101.45
08/17/14 1.2961 107.60 2.57 17151 94.05
10/29/14 1.2677 108.40 2.33 16956 82.51
12/17/14 1.2409 117.58 2.11 17201 57.85
01/28/15 1.1337 117.77 1.78 17457 44.75
03/18/15 1.0637 120.98 2.05 17733 42.49
04/29/15 1.1164 118.67 2.05 18039 59.16
06/17/15 1.1255 124.22 2.39 17862 59.12
07/29/15 1.1073 123.61 2.29 17720 49.17
09/17/15

10/28/15

 1.1334

1.1081

 120.86

120.50

 2.26

2.07

 16778

17687

 47.01

45.83
12/16/15

01/27/16

03/16/16

04/27/16

06/14/16

07/27/16

09/21/16

11/02/16

12/14/16

02/01/17

03/15/17

05/03/17

06/14/17

07/25/17

09/20/17

11/01/17

12/13/17

01/31/18

03/21/18

05/02/18

06/13/18

08/01/18

09/26/18

11/08/18

12/19/18

01/30/19

03/20/19

05/01/19

06/19/19

07/31/19

09/18/19

10/30/19

12/11/19

01/29/20

03/03/20

03/15/20

03/23/20

04/29/20

06/10/20

07/29/20

09/16/20

11/05/20

12/16/20

01/27/21

03/17/21

04/28/21

06/16/21

07/28/21

09/22/21

11/03/21

12/15/21

01/26/22

03/16/22

05/04/22

06/15/22

07/27/22

09/21/22

 1.0956

1.0874

1.1089

1.1339

1.1205

1.0998

1.1160

1.1099

1.0641

1.0741

1.0638

1.0910

1.1149

1.1735

1.2010

1.1631

1.1815

1.2424

1.2271

1.1963

1.1788

1.1668

1.1765

1.1400

1.1420

1.1415

1.1355

1.1244

1.1217

1.1132

1.1066

1.1117

1.1112

1.1002

1.1179

1.1087

1.0697

1.0859

1.1367

1.1787

1.1824

1.1814

1.2174

1.2115

1.1908

1.2071

1.2126

1.1812

1.1722

1.1581

1.1255

1.1287

1.0983

1.0536

1.0438

1.0129

0.9891

 

 121.72

118.48

113.70

111.37

106.15

105.65

100.84

103.33

115.37

113.52

114.48

112.47

111.55

111.17

111.34

113.91

112.58

109.31

106.27

109.91

110.38

111.69

112.94

113.88

112.26

109.55

111.42

111.17

108.36

108.59

108.16

108.89

108.62

109.14

107.21

108.33

111.26

106.73

107.24

104.84

105.00

103.68

103.65

104.07

109.27

108.80

109.97

110.09

109.23

114.01

113.98

114.36

118.62

130.10

133.82

137.31

144.01

 2.29

2.02

1.99

1.89

1.62

1.53

1.70

1.78

2.45

2.49

2.57

2.30

2.13

2.29

2.24

2.35

2.34

2.73

2.89

2.97

2.96

2.99

3.08

3.23

2.81

2.72

2.57

2.48

2.08

2.02

1.75

1.80

1.80

1.61

1.01

1.01

0.81

0.61

0.77

0.59

0.67

0.77

0.91

1.01

1.66

1.62

1.49

1.25

1.31

1.56

1.45

1.78

2.19

2.98

3.34

2.77

3.55

 17583

16002

17217

18013

17675

18461

18151

17989

19915

19890

20885

20920

21375

21711

22376

23405

24585

26259

24839

24095

25309

25310

26543

26195

23881

24841

25727

26624

26452

27210

27048

27067

27877

28833

25917

23185

18592

24667

27169

26467

28196

28418

30,125

30,554

32,868

33,908

34,251

34,938

34,279

35,894

35,493

34,594

33,726

33,242

30,806

31,846

30,881

 35.95

30.85

37.79

44.89

48.29

41.91

43.44

45.18

51.83

53.33

48.43

47.96

44.71

48.75

50.55

54.24

56.60

64.41

65.00

67.57

66.77

67.62

71.68

60.93

47.80

54.51

59.48

63.38

53.65

58.48

58.16

54.60

58.68

53.52

47.18

31.73

23.36

15.30

39.05

41.22

40.00

38.84

47.77

52.81

64.30

63.70

72.32

74.25

71.94

81.14

70.39

87.40

95.70

107.71

116.24

97.36

84.38

Copyright 2022, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission. 

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 21st, 2022 at 9:29 am and is filed under Central Bank Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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