Key Takeaways From Powell’s Interview With Rubenstein

Here are the five key takeaways from Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s interview with David Rubenstein on Tuesday.

(Bloomberg) — Here are the five key takeaways from Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s interview with David Rubenstein on Tuesday.

In his first speaking engagement since last week’s FOMC meeting, which came right before a stronger-than-forecast jobs report, Powell said that if the labor market data continue to come in stronger than officials expected, and inflation climbs more, the Fed may need to raise rates to higher than previously thought.
Powell repeated that he’s concerned about inflation in the core services excluding the housing sector, and that the labor market remains too tight. He says that getting inflation down will likely be a difficult process, and one that isn’t necessarily smooth.
While there should be a “significant” decline in inflation this year, it’ll likely go into next year to get it down to the Fed’s 2% target, he said.
The interview with David Rubenstein didn’t yield much new from the Fed chair. Some had thought he might speak more aggressively about the employment report, but he seemed to stick to his talking points that the Fed will stay data-dependent. And policymakers will have another month of jobs data, as well as inflation readings, when they next meet in March.
US stocks hit session highs during the interview, reacting to a what was then perceived as a dovish Fed Chair. Equities then erased their gains as soon as the event ended, after Powell said that if strong labor data persists, the peak rate in the current tightening cycle may be higher.

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–With assistance from Isabelle Lee.

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