Fed head Powell: A March Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) rate cut is unlikely

<p>Federal Reserve Chair Powell:</p><ul><li>
With economy strong, we feel we can approach rate cut timing
question carefully</li><li>Confidence is
rising, but want more confidence before taking 'very important step'
of starting rate cuts</li><li>Making good progress
on inflation</li><li>Could move sooner if
we saw labor market weakness or inflation 'really persuasively'
coming down</li><li>More persistent
inflation could mean a later move</li><li>Repeats expectation
that March meeting likely too soon to have confidence to start rate
cuts</li><li>There is no 'easy,
simple, obvious path'</li><li>Expects inflation
will continue to move down in the first six months of this year due
to base effects</li><li>Also expects
12-month inflation readings to fall over course of this year</li><li>Asked about
policymaker forecasts in December for year-end rate policy level of
4.6%, says nothing since then leads me to think people would
dramatically change forecasts</li><li>Almost all 19
policymakers see it appropriate to cut rates this year</li><li>We do not take
politics into our decision making</li><li>In hindsight would
have been better to tighten policy earlier</li><li>Doesn't see elevated
possibility of recession</li><li>Doesn't see
commercial real estate loans as the makings of a crisis as seen in
the past</li><li>China problems
unlikely to affect US economy, may feel some impacts 'a bit, but they
shouldn't be large'</li><li>Geopolitical risks
stand as largest near-term risks, but more for other parts of world
than the US</li></ul><p>I don't see much, if anything, new from Powell here. He is repeating what he has already said. </p><p>-</p><p>The interview was recorded February 1 and has just gone to air</p><p>-</p><p>S&amp;P 500 futures on Globex update. With nothing much new does it open the door for a bid to emerge. Tha would be my bias from here but we'll see. </p>

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.