He is known as a hawk
Fed's Quarles speaking at an insurance conference in NY, veered from the expected script and gives more than expected views on the economy:
- data on real economy is very strong
- December job creation number was very vague
- Inflation remains very well contained, especially with oil prices falling
- financial markets recently reacted to doubt about strength of global growth including China, Europe
- low-inflation, strong jobs is a very good environment
- some China, Europe data signals little less growth
- some global weakness may be transitory
- markets are attuned to downside economic risks
- core base case remains very strong
- we see some stretched valuations in equities, commercial real estatem, but overall risk to US financial stability remains moderate
Well, he is more chatty than I thought he would be given the conference and topic.
US stocks that moved to the up side after earlier declines have been erased:
- S&P indexes up 1.23 points at 2617.35
- NASDAQ index up 5.88 points at 7040
- Dow industrial average is still down by 38 points at 24170 but well off the low levels
