James Bullard was a dissent on the Federal Open Market Committee today. Speaking of dissent, I've pretty much only seen one dissenter in the responses to the FOMC decision.

That the FOMC is not as dovish as first responses indicate … more on that here (scroll down)

Anyway, this response from Westpac NZ. In brief, bolding mine:

  • notably dovish
  • will cement rate cut expectations
  • Powell underscored that trade and global growth are the key concerns.
  • The dot plot shows a median steady policy this year but that obscures a big dovish tail with 8 among 17 projecting cuts this year - almost all (7) project 2 cuts this year. If just one more Fed official joined this group in calling for a cut(s) the median would have shifted lower.
  • In any case the change to the 2019 dots is a notable shift
  • Powell noted there was "not much support for a cut now, bar one", though they will act "promptly if appropriate"