FOMC

It will probably take “quite some time” for Federal Reserve officials to conclude the economy has made substantial progress following Friday’s disappointing jobs report, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said he has “zero sympathy” for critics on Wall Street, who slam the central bank’s aggressive support of the U.S. economy while millions of Americans remain out of work.

A rising appetite for risk across a variety of asset markets is stretching valuations and creating vulnerabilities in the U.S. financial system, the Federal Reserve said in its semi-annual financial stability report.

A senior White House economic aide said the decision on selecting the next central bank chief will come after a thorough “process.”

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that while the U.S. economic recovery is “making real progress,” the gains have been uneven following a downturn that cut hard along lines of race and income.

Signs of excess risk taking in financial markets show it’s time for the U.S. central bank to start debating a reduction in its massive bond purchases, said the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve, breaking ranks with Chair Jerome Powell.

The key benchmark that the Federal Reserve targets to control monetary policy dropped for the first time this month, dragged down as growing imbalances in the Treasury-bill market weigh on short-term dollar rates.

The municipal market largely ignored the FOMC news that it would hold rates steady. New Jersey was 20 times oversubscribed and ICI reported $2.5 billion of inflows into long-term municipal bond mutual funds.

President Joe Biden, who has an opportunity to reshape the leadership of the Federal Reserve over the next 10 months, is being urged by activists to make potentially significant changes at the U.S. central bank.

High-grade scales were little changed as ICI reports the sixth week in a row of inflows to the tune of $2.29 billion into municipal bond mutual funds.