Another Hawkish Surprise: What the Fed Decision Means for Markets

What’s in Today’s Report:

• Another Hawkish Surprise: What the Fed Decision Means for Markets

Futures are little changed as markets digested yet another hawkish Fed decision amidst more global rate hikes.

The overnight session was mostly quiet as investors digested the Fed rate hike while other global central banks raised rates (five separate central banks hiked rates overnight, as expected).

The Bank of Japan intervened in the currency markets for the first time since 1998, causing a 1% rally in the yen.

Today focus will be on the Bank of England Rate Decision (E: 50 bps hike) and on weekly Jobless Claims (E: 220K).  Fed Chair Powell again highlighted that the labor market is still much too tight, so markets need these jobless claims to start to rise towards 300k to prevent even further Fed tightening in the future.  The sooner the labor market returns to better balance, the sooner we get to “peak hawkishness.”