- Job number was a "wow" number, but trend not surprising
- Fed prepared to to do more
- Rate decisions will depend on inflation
- Fed policymaker forecasts a good indicator but prepared to do more
- Too early to talk about what we will do meeting by meeting
- Directional policy is for additional tightenings, then hold for some time
- The number one surprise coming out of the pandemic has been the resiliency of the US economy
- I see a strong labor market
- Far too early to declare victory, or a peak
- Will need to be in restrictive policy stance until truly believe inflation will come down to 2%
At the end of the day, nothing new. However, we do know that between yesterday and today, the Fed may not have a higher terminal rate, but they will also not stop tightening or reverse course for an extended time.
The next meeting is on March 21. There will be another jobs report and two more CPI releases. The next CPI will be on Tuesday February 14, and another one on March 14.
We will see but even if you get 0K jobs next month, the two-month average is still 258K which is on par with prior two months in December and November (averaged 275K). So job growth is not really slowing.
The trend in the CPI has been to the downside over the last 6 months, but the services CPI has been sticky. With leisure and hospitality jobs surging, and restaurants full in my neighborhood at least, the wallets are still open.
The potential bright spot may be that a larger number of workers in that service industry, may stabilize wages as there is no need to pay up for workers with the supply increasing.
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