Fed officials aren’t easing Wall Street’s nerves

Earlier this week, some officials at the Federal Reserve said they’re no longer worried about inflation reaccelerating, after data showed that progress stalled in the first quarter. Optimism spurred by the latest inflation data pushed all three major stock indexes to new record highs. But now Wall Street, eager for rate cuts, is on edge again.

Earlier this week, some officials at the Federal Reserve said they’re no longer worried about inflation reaccelerating, after data showed that progress stalled in the first quarter. Optimism spurred by the latest inflation data pushed all three major stock indexes to new record highs. But now Wall Street, eager for rate cuts, is on edge again. That’s because minutes from the central bank’s latest policy meeting released Wednesday showed that “various” officials said they would be willing to raise interest rates if necessary and that there were doubts as to whether financial conditions are restrictive enough to keep inflation from resurging. It spooked investors: The Dow slid more than 300 points following the release of the minutes. Moreover, the Fed minutes seemed to outweigh comments from Fed Governor Christopher Waller, a key messenger of monetary policy moves, who told CNBC in an interview Tuesday that the Fed could cut rates by the “end of the year.” In a separate speech earlier that day, he said “the data suggests that inflation isn’t accelerating.” “More recent data on the economy indicate that restrictive monetary policy is helping to cool off aggregate demand and the inflation data for April suggests that progress toward 2% has likely resumed,” Waller said at an event hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He pointed to recent figures on employment and retail spending coming in weaker than expected, both of which should help take some steam out of inflation.