Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted, the job of getting inflation to the central bank’s “two percent longer-run goal” could be “on a sometimes-bumpy path.” And just as disinflation doesn’t travel in a straight line, neither does the trajectory of interest rates. Powell added that the Fed doesn’t need to be “in a hurry to lower rates” because the of “the strength we are currently seeing in the economy.”
The hawkish slant of Powell’s comments dramatically lowered traders’ bets of a December rate cut. The chance that the Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points at its December meeting is now 62.6%, compared with 82.5% earlier in the day, according to the
CME FedWatch tool.
BlackRock’s Rick Rieder thinks the Fed will still reduce rates by 25 basis points in December. As for cuts next year, however, “the pace at which that happens and whether they actually need it gets really called into question,” Rieder told CNBC.