On May 25, at the press conference on May 3, Powell gave a fairly strong hint that he was in favor of suspending interest rate hikes at the June meeting, and emphasized twice that “policy has been quite tightened.”
But how common is this sentiment? Meeting minutes can be interesting.
Concerns about the banking sector have eased since May 3, with the KBW Bank Index inching up 3.3%.
We’ve heard some Fed officials say they don’t want a pause in rate hikes.
So, any indication in the minutes that a significant number of policymakers do not want to pause rate hikes is certainly a hawkish signal.