RBC Says Yellen’s Contradiction of FOMC Hits Fed’s Credibility

The Federal Reserve has lost credibility by failing to deliver a clear message during its interest rate policy announcement last week and because Chair Janet Yellen contradicted its decision in her speech, RBC Capital Market’s Jonathan Golub said Friday.

“They took an unsettled situation and they just threw kerosene on that fire through all of their statements,” RBC’s chief U.S. market strategist told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “They didn’t fix this with one speech.
During her speech Thursday at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Yellen said it would be appropriate to raise the Fed’s benchmark fed funds rate “sometime later this year.” However, she noted that the decision to normalize interest rates—which the Fed has held near zero since December 2008—would remain dependent on economic data.

Last week, the Fed’s policymaking committee voted to leave the fed funds rate unchanged. Afterward, Yellen cited the need for further evidence of labor market improvement and signs inflation is moving toward the Fed’s target, as well as concerns about economic weakness overseas.

Via CNBC

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza