As the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s June meeting were released on Wednesday, the word “uncertainty” reigned supreme amid the ongoing tariff turmoil and President Donald Trump‘s call to cut rates by 3 percentage points.
What Happened: The words “uncertain” and “uncertainty” appeared 28 times in the June 17-18 meeting minutes, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell mentioned the two words 19 times, as highlighted by Ed Yardeni from Yardeni Research.
“Most of the uncertainty faced by Fed officials has to do with Trump’s Tariff Turmoil (TTT). Collectively, they are leaning toward lowering the federal funds rate. But they are in no hurry to do so since they are worried that TTT might still boost inflation,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chief economist at LPL Financial, Jeffrey Roach, said that the key takeaways from the Federal Open Market Committee’s June 18 policy meeting suggested “The FOMC is comfortable remaining in wait-and-see mode. Despite headwinds, the economy continues to trudge along, giving policymakers time to assess …