Fed Official Makes Interest Rate Claim
Stocks bounced after earlier trimming morning gains. Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic expects policymakers to start cutting rates in the third quarter of this year, saying Thursday that inflation is well on its way back to the central bank's goal. Bostic is a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, which decides rate policy.
His remarks appeared to cut into stock gains, but indexes bounced back in late trading.
"Because I'm data dependent, I have incorporated the unexpected progress on inflation and economic activity into my outlook, and thus moved up my projected time to begin normalizing the federal funds rate to the third quarter of this year from the fourth quarter," Bostic told business leaders in Atlanta Thursday.
At the end of last week the CME FedWatch Tool saw an 80% likelihood of a rate cut in March. It now sits at around the 56% level.