Powell Emphasizes Meeting-By-Meeting Approach With September Live (1/2)

Chair Powell has indicated in the past that the FOMC was going to take a data-dependent, and meeting-by-meeting approach - but this was the first time it came off as genuine with no predetermined decision for the next meeting.

• His comments on that subject pointed to disagreement among FOMC participants ("would say there's a range of views on the committee. When you see the minutes in three weeks you will see that.")
• About as close to guidance as Powell got: "Between now and the September meeting, we get two more job reports, two more CPI reports...an ECI report...and lots of data on economic activity. All of that information is going to inform our decision as we go into that meeting. I would say it is certainly possible that we would raise the funds rate again at the September meeting if the data warranted. And I would also say it's possible that we would choose to hold steady at that meeting. We're going to making careful assessments, as I said, meeting by meeting."
• On the same note, he pushed back again on the one-on-one-off hike pace narrative, which seemed fairly evident as the base case as recently as the June meeting but today he further clarified that consecutive hikes were on the table: "a more gradual pace doesn't go immediately to every other meeting. It could be two out of three meetings."