NY's Williams Modestly Dovish On April CPI Data, Remains Cautious On Cuts

Reuters running an exclusive interview with NY Fed President Williams in which he describes Wednesday's largely in-line April CPI report as "kind of a positive development". While that's characteristically dovish-leaning of him, it is telling that the data doesn't seem to have spurred any reconsideration to his view that a rate cut is not warranted in the "near term", with policy "in a good place".

• That seems to be the Committee's mantra until there are at least a couple more reports meriting confidence that inflation is converging to 2% - keeping June and likely July off the table for a cut barring major surprises.
• Key headlines from the Reuters interview:
• EXCLUSIVE-NEW YORK FED PRESIDENT WILLIAMS: DOESN’T SEE NEED FOR RATE CUT IN ‘NEAR TERM’
• FED’S WILLIAMS: APRIL CPI WAS ‘POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT’ FOR INFLATION DYNAMICS
• FED’S WILLIAMS: OVERALL TREND FOR SLOWING INFLATION LOOKS GOOD
• FED’S WILLIAMS: DOESN’T SEE ANY CURRENT NEED TO RAISE INTEREST RATES
• FED’S WILLIAMS: NEED NOT WAIT UNTIL INFLATION EXACTLY AT 2% TO EASE POLICY