Fed to Keep up the Squeeze with Another 25bp Hike

Fed to keep up the squeeze with another 25bp hike

The Federal Reserve is set to resume its policy tightening on 26 July. Inflation is moderating but remains well above target and with a tight jobs market and resilient activity, officials may feel they can't take any chances. The Fed will continue to signal the prospect of further hikes, but with the credit cycle turning, we doubt it will carry through.

25bp hike an obvious call

After 10 consecutive interest rate hikes over the previous 15 months, the Federal Reserve left the Fed funds target rate unchanged at 5-5.25% in June. While it was a unanimous decision, there was hawkish messaging in the accompanying press conference and updated Fed forecasts, signalling a broad consensus behind the idea of two more rate rises later in the year.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell stated that the long and varied lags in monetary policy meant that the decision should be interpreted as a slowing in the pace of rate hikes rather than an actual pause. While inflation is moderating, it is still far too high and with the jobs market remaining very tight, the Fed can’t take any chances.

The commentary since then remains consistent with this messaging, with broad support among officials that the 26 July Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announcement will be for another 25bp rate rise, taking the Fed funds range to 5.25-5.5%. Fed funds futures contracts are pricing 24bp with economists nearly universally expecting a 25bp hike

Keeping the door open for additional tightening

The scenario graphic outlines the options open to the Fed and our sense of the likely market consequences of those actions. The no change and 50bp hike options seem very remote possibilities given comments from officials. The dilemma is whether the Fed hikes 25bp and sticks with the view that it needs to signal the likely need for one or more rate hikes or whether it moves more to a data dependency stance.

A data dependency narrative would be a shift in position and lead the market to latch onto the possibility of the Fed not hiking further. This would likely see Treasury yields and the dollar fall quite significantly, which would loosen financial conditions in the economy. Given low unemployment, robust wage growth and the fact that core inflation is still running at more than double the 2% target, this is not something Fed officials would willfully countenance.

Consequently, we put a 70% probability on the 25bp hike scenario that includes commentary emphasising the need to be attentive to inflation risks, that growth needs to slow below trend and that further rate hikes “may be appropriate”. We would then say there is a 25% chance of a more dovish 25bp hike, signalling a likely peak for rates, while the 0bp and 50bp outcomes each have a 2.5% chance of materialising.