Comments from San Francisco Fed President Williams:
- International developments were clearly part of the Fed decision to wait on raising rates
- Will watch for signs that risks on global growth front have gotten worse
- Even in an uncertain environment, Fed will need to take needed actions to reach its goals
- Global interdependence has not made Fed less able to affect growth, but may affect policy lags
- US is hit more by events abroad than it used to be
- As balance sheet runs off, look for the yield curve to steepen
- After Fed begins to hike rates, it will at some point let balance sheet shrink organically
It's hard to get an edge from these comments. It's obviously more of the wait-and-see mode the Fed's been in. Previously, Williams sounded more hawkish and he's refrained from any kind of grand declarations about hiking this year so perhaps that's a dovish hint.
Update: Williams just added that it's appropriate to hike rates this year and continue in 2016, so ignore the previous sentence.
