Asked at a Washington Post event whether he felt U.S. investors had taken an overly optimistic view of Fed policy until a recent sharp sell-off begin, Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic said that was beside the point.
In separate remarks to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Boston Fed president Susan Collins echoed the Fed's consensus that the fight to cool the current bout of inflation was paramount. The Fed maintains a 2% inflation target, as measured by the personal consumptions expenditures price index. As of July that index was increasing at a more than 6% annual rate. Data for August will be released on Friday.a third consecutive rate hike of three-quarters of a percentage point. It has now raised its policy rate a total of three percentage points this year, marking one of its faster efforts ever to raise borrowing costs and slow the economy.
In recent weeks equity markets have reflected a broader repricing against the possibility of U.S. interest rates returning to levels not seen in a decade and remaining there.