Whether or not San Francisco Fed President John Williams is right about US inflation and employment being about as close to the central bank’s targets as investors have seen - as he told CNBC two days ago - is irrelevant: The central bank is going to raise interest rates two more times this year no matter what happens to consumer prices, says Credit Suisse Chief Investment Officer for Switzerland Burkhard Varnholt.
In a relatively quiet session, which may see US traders sleep in a bit after last night's Superbowl thriller, European and Asian shares rose ahead of Mario Draghi’s testimony at the European Parliament, while US equity futures were fractionally higher (up 0.1% to 2,293) after stocks jumped the most in a week, as traders assessed the trajectory for interest rates while scrutinizing every new Trump tweet.
It all started with a speech by the Atlanta Fed's Dennis Lockhart and San Francisco Fed's John Williams yesterday who said that two rate hikes may be warranted this year. Both Fed presidents suggested that they continue to see two to three rate hikes this year. Lockhart also added that markets are currently more pessimistic than he is, while Williams made mention of June being a live meeting and even went as far as to say that his view of gradual hikes also means 3-4 hikes in 2017.