Fed's Waller tilts more hawkish (permanent voter on the FOMC)

FOMC member Christopher Waller

The Fed's Christopher Waller has tilted more hawkish with comments saying:

  • Improvement in labor market, high inflation make me favor faster tapering, more rapid lift off in rates
  • Inflation pressures becoming more widespread, will last longer into 2022 than I expected
  • Labor market is rapidly approaching maximum employment
  • Supply constraints having a larger and more persistent effect on the economy
  • I expect robust GDP growth in Q4 and H1 2022
  • Reducing balance sheet would help smooth market functioning
  • I would support similar process to last time when time comes to start reducing balance sheet

Fed Gov. Waller is a permanent voting member on the FOMC. Yesterday Feds Evans (could see 2022 hike), Bostic and Williams (sees inflation more broad based) showed a similar tilt toward more being more hawkish.

The Nasdaq index has dipped around 19 points (from +89 points to +70 points at the moment) since the comments. The 2 year is has moved up about 0.8 bps.