The Federal Reserve has started a hiking cycle that's expected to continue with half-point increases in June and July, Marvin Loh, senior macro strategist at State Street Global Markets, will assess the June Federal Open Market Committee meeting and tell what he expects the panel to do in the future.

Democratic senators led by Bob Menendez urged the Federal Reserve to take a more active role in the selection process of the heads of its regional banks so that more diverse candidates would be considered.

The U.S. central bank should raise interest rates as fast as it can without causing undue harm to financial markets or the economy, said Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said the risk of a recession in the U.S. economy is increasing, and that it will take several years to return to the central bank’s 2% inflation goal.

The Federal Reserve said it would do what is needed to get prices under control, reiterating that price stability is necessary to support a strong labor market and calling its commitment to reining in inflation “unconditional.”

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Esther George said she opposed the Fed’s biggest interest-rate increase in almost three decades because the move, combined with the shrinking of the central bank’s balance sheet, created uncertainty about the outlook.

Monday's massive selloff contributed to investors pulling more out from the mutual fund complex. Exchange-traded funds saw $1 billion of outflows and high-yield investors yanked out $1.7 billion.

The 75 basis point hike, prompted partly by hotter-than-expected inflation data, is the largest since 1994.

Triple-A yield curves rose five to eight basis points. Volatility somewhat eased Tuesday as investors took pause ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

The 25-basis-point move to higher yields is the largest one-day change in triple-As since March 2020 when COVID began roiling markets. Munis could not ignore a continued selloff in UST led by inflation and recession concerns.

Ahead of the FOMC meeting, municipal issuers pull back. Investors will be greeted Monday $2.880 billion of new-issue supply.

More firms are revising issuance projections downward due to lower refunding and taxable volumes. Many participants say it is unlikely the market will hit issuance records reached in 2021 and 2020.

While a document search will not turn up the dreaded word “stagflation,” the minutes mention on multiple occasions that the FOMC sees risk to growth skewing toward the downside, and inflation risk to the upside.

The seasonal factors of a supply and demand mismatch, reinvestment needs and strong credit fundamentals, have opened a window of opportunity.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said she favors raising interest rates this month and next but cautioned that pace could speed up or slow down from September.

Municipals posted gains for the first time in 2022 in May, outperforming U.S. Treasuries on the month. The Bloomberg Muni Index posted a 1.49% return in May bringing losses down to 7.47% year to date.

George's departure will come around the same time that Chicago Fed chief Charles Evans steps down. Both will have turned 65.

The amount of money parked at a major Federal Reserve facility climbed to yet another all-time high, surpassing the $2 trillion milestone for the first time, as investors struggled to find places to invest their cash in the short term.  

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Esther George said she expects the central bank to raise interest rates to 2% by August, with the further course of tightening being guided by how surging inflation cools off.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said policy makers could potentially pause interest-rate increases in September after hiking by a half point at each of their next two meetings.