Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart speaks at the top of the hour
The surprise event last week was an interview with Lockhart in the WSJ where he sounded highly inclined to support a September rate hike.
Lockhart is an excellent barometer for the core of the Fed and his comments sparked a US dollar rally and selloff in stocks.
Here is exactly what he said:
- "I think there is a high bar right now to not acting, speaking for myself"
- "It will take a significant deterioration in the economic picture for me to be disinclined to move ahead"
The caveat in both is that he's only referring to himself. That could leave him some wiggle room to add a caveat saying the consensus is what matters. To me, that's the main risk today. But he's not a Fed speaker (like Bullard) prone to easily-misinterpreted statements. It's more likely that he was signaling that a hike is very likely.
Other comments:
- "My priors going into the [September] meeting as of today are that the economy is ready and it is an appropriate time to make a change"
- "I don't think it would be a big policy error to wait somewhat longer," he said. "I'm not one to quibble over one meeting or so. But I do think we are close. The economy is in a state of readiness for beginning normalization."
Note that his initial comments may be benign but he also speaks at 1625 GMT (12:25 pm ET) to the Atlanta Press Club where he will take questions from the audience and media.
