Highlights from Powell's opening statement
- Indicators of activity and employment continue to improve
- Household spending is rising at a rapid pace
- Business investment is increasing at a solid pace
- Overall unemployment remains well below pre-pandemic
- Factors weighing on employment growth should wane in the coming months
- Inflation has increased 'notably' and to remain elevated
- Seeing upward price pressures from rebound in spending
- There's a possibility that inflation pressures could be persistent
- If we saw signs that the path of inflation was moving persistently above goal, we would be prepared to adjust the stance of monetary policy
- Bottlenecks putting upward pressure on inflation have been larger than anticipated
- Whenever liftoff comes, policy will remain highly accommodative
- Liftoff will mean the economy is strong
- Reaching the standard of 'substantial further progress' is 'still a ways off'
The 5-year note yield is now up 10 bps to 0.88% on the day. That's a strong signal about how surprised the market is by this.
