June S&P 500 E-Mini futures (ESM24) are down -0.36%, and June Nasdaq 100 E-Mini futures (NQM24) are down -0.30% this morning, signaling further losses on Wall Street after hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data diminished hopes of early interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, while investors awaited crucial U.S. producer inflation data and a policy verdict from the European Central Bank.
The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s March 19-20 meeting revealed that “almost all” officials judged it would be appropriate to commence reducing borrowing costs “at some point” this year. At the same time, policymakers discussed “the possibility of maintaining the current restrictive policy stance for longer should the disinflation process slow.” Also, some Fed officials warned that recent increases in inflation “had been relatively broad-based and therefore should not be discounted as merely statistical aberrations.” In addition, the minutes indicated that Fed officials “generally favored” slowing the pace at which they are shrinking the central bank’s asset portfolio by approximately half.
