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.

The U.S. economy needs supply-side interventions rather than interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve that will fail to bring inflation under control, said Nobel laureate economist Joe Stiglitz.

Corrigan thrived on crisis situations, a colleague said. He received plenty of practice in 25 years at the Fed and another two decades at Goldman Sachs.

The Biden administration’s pick for Federal Reserve vice chair for supervision faced questions about climate change, digital assets and the central bank’s independence. But he did not meet the same resistance from Republicans as the White House’s first choice, Sarah Bloom Raskin, observers said.

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Esther George said the “rough week in the equity markets” was not surprising, partially reflecting the central bank’s policy tightening, and doesn’t alter her support for half-point interest-rate hikes to cool inflation.

If the Federal Reserve raises its key interest rate somewhat above what it thinks is a “neutral” level for the economy and stops there, that should help bring inflation down from current elevated levels, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said.

The U.S. economy won’t be able to avoid a bout of stagflation and markets have yet to tune into the risk of a significant slowdown in growth, said Mohamed El-Erian.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said he supports the central bank’s plan to raise interest rates in half-percentage-point steps at coming meetings.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said no one should doubt the U.S. central bank’s resolve to curb the highest inflation in decades, including pushing rates into restrictive territory if needed.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the current Fed leaders were too slow to react to surging U.S. inflation and as a result face a period of stagflation, or a combination of stagnant growth and high inflation.

“Unless there are some big surprises, I expect it to be appropriate to raise the policy rate another 50 basis points at each of our next two meetings,” Mester said Friday.