The minutes of the June FOMC meeting provided little inspirations to the markets overnight. It’s noted that job gains had been strong, unemployment rate hade decline, growth of household spending had picked up, business fixed investment continued to grow strongly, headline and core inflation have moved close to 2%, long term-inflation expectations were little changed. “Members viewed the recent data as consistent with a strong economy that was evolving about as they had expected.”
Flattening of the yield curve was a topic discussed during the meeting as that “might signal about economic activity going forward”. A numbers of factors were brought forward, including “reduction in investors’ estimates of the longer-run neutral real interest rate; lower longer-term inflation expectations; or a lower level of term premiums in recent years relative to historical experience reflecting, in part, central bank asset purchases.” And that could ” temper the reliability of the slope of the yield curve as an indicator of future economic activity.” A number of the meeting participants said that “it would be important to continue to monitor the slope of the yield curve.”
The minutes also noted that escalating trade tensions have already started hurting investments. The minutes pointed out that “many district contacts expressed concern about the possible adverse effects of tariffs and other proposed trade restrictions, both domestically and abroad, on future investment activity.” And, “contacts in some districts indicated that plans for capital spending had been scaled back or postponed as a result of uncertainty over trade policy.” And, most policymakers noted that “uncertainty and risks associated with trade policy had intensified and were concerned that such uncertainty and risks eventually could have negative effects”.
