US CPI and Fed Previews: Delays, but Dovish

The key measures to focus on will be:

• Core CPI MoM – if that rounds off the 0.2%, it can offer relief to markets but if it rounds to 0.4%, there could be further pushback on Fed rate cut pricing for this year
• Supercore inflation MoM (core services less housing) – this is also a key focus for markets and it is still running high at 0.42% MoM in April. But markets will likely be relieved if it comes in below 0.4%.
• Annualized trends – The 3-month and 6-month annualized inflation trends are also closely watched by markets.

Here, we outline the market scenarios for Core CPI print on a MoM basis:

FOMC Preview: Median dots to shift hawkish, but Powell will balance the narrative

The US Federal Reserve is expected to keep interest rates unchanged at 5.25-5.50% on Wednesday. Market focus will be on the dot plot and Chair Powell’s press conference to gauge the path of monetary policy in H2 and beyond.

The dot plot outlines the individual members’ views on the path for interest rates, and is an important source of clues to dissect the thinking of the Fed committee members. Market usually focuses on the median dot, and that becomes the de facto monetary policy forecast for the Fed despite a poor history of the dot plot to accurately predict the pace of monetary policy changes.

The last Fed dot plot in March, as shown below, signalled that three rate cuts for the year remained their central view, with three further cuts in 2025. There have been further signs of sticky inflation, as well as a robust labor market since this release, and Chair Powell’s comments at the May meeting also signalled that rates may have to remain ‘high-for-longer’.

This has led to an expectation that the dot plot could shift hawkish at the June meeting this week, which means that it could show two or one rate cut only for 2024 down from three in March.

The US economy has been a mixed bag, and while we started to see some weakness in jobs data (falling JOLTs, rising claims), the recent blowout NFP report last Friday once again questioned whether the economy needs rate cuts urgently. We believe this confusion will be evident in the Fed’s dot plot as well, which could see larger-than-usual dispersion in the forecasts from the different committee members.

Our base case would be that the mean dot reflects two rate cuts for this year. Moving to one rate cut right away could be risky in case the economy weakened sharply over the next few months and then they may be pressed to cut rates more than once this year. However, there is a significant part of the market that is expecting the Fed to show one or no rate cuts at the June dot plot. One such sample is the Bloomberg survey which shows that 43% of the economists polled expect one or no rate cut for the 2024 as median Fed projection. I also did a LinkedIn poll and the results are below.

However, even with two rate cuts as the mean projection, a wide dispersion with a large number of committee members moving their dot to reflect one rate cut would be a relatively hawkish message. Any changes in long-run rate forecasts will also be a key input into Fed’s thinking on the stickiness of inflation and the path of monetary policy in the current cycle. Risk/reward on the Fed meeting is seemingly tilted hawkish, but that means Chair Powell could make an attempt to sound neutral-to-dovish in order to avoid spooking the markets.

Potential investment implications

Despite an expected hawkish shift to the Fed’s dot plot at this week’s meeting, it is important to understand that market is front-running this expectation. This will weaken the hawkish impact from such a decision, at least as long as median dot plot reflects two rate cuts.

Recent FX articles and podcasts:

• 10 Jun: EUR: Election jitters and ECB rate cut add to downside pressures
• 30 May: JPY: Intervention fears clash with carry trade attractiveness
• 29 May: AUD: Hot inflation reaffirms rate cuts remain some way off
• 15 May: AUD: Tailwinds to stay despite Budget impact
• 7 May: AUD: RBA fails to meet the hawkish expectations
• 3 May: JPY: Staying on intervention alert
• 30 Apr: AUD: Retail sales miss questions RBA market pricing
• 26 Apr: JPY: Bank of Japan adds to reasons to stay bearish yen
• 25 Apr: JPY: Accelerated sell-off; can the BOJ halt yen's decline?
• 25 Apr: Thematic Podcast: Deciphering Asian forex interventions
• 23 Apr: GBP: What can drive the next leg lower?
• 18 Apr: JPY: Intervention alert, or a BOJ alert?
• 16 Apr: Chinese Yuan’s Double Whammy - Dollar Strength and Yen Weakness
• 9 Apr: CAD vulnerable as market underprices dovish Bank of Canada risks

Recent Macro articles and podcasts:

• 10 Jun: Macro Podcast: Nonfarm payroll shatters expectations - how will the Fed react?
• 3 Jun: Macro Podcast: It is a rate cut week
• 28 May: Macro Podcast: When speech trump numbers
• 16 May: US CPI: Putting a September Fed Rate Cut Back in Play
• 14 May: US inflation report: How to trade the event

Weekly FX Chartbooks:

• 10 Jun: Weekly FX Chartbook: US CPI and FOMC dot plot have a low dovish bar
• 3 Jun: Weekly FX Chartbook: ECB and Bank of Canada likely to cut rates
• 27 May: Weekly FX Chartbook: Fresh USD upside from hawkish bolts and trade threats
• 13 May: Weekly FX Chartbook: US CPI and US-China trade tensions on the radar

FX 101 Series:

• 15 May: Understanding carry trades in the forex market
• 19 Apr: Using FX for portfolio diversification
• 28 Feb: Navigating Japanese equities: Strategies for hedging JPY exposure
• 8 Feb: FX 101: USD Smile and portfolio impacts from King Dollar