December 2022 was a pretty indecisive month for private investors as they tried to decipher Powell’s messages regarding their economical expectations and the next steps, but they failed, as always.
This month Jerome showed everyone that he is still the best at what he’s doing - he has been talking a lot while saying very little. No matter how hard the public tries to extract any useful information from him, the man is still undefeated and retaining his title as the grandmaster of “Fedspeak”.
Thereby, all we’ve got to work with this time around is key economical data prints and Powell’s tight commentaries.
After all, absence of information is also a signal.
Key takeaways from the Fed in december:
The final terminal rate is still up to a debate.
There is no clear indication that the economy is heading towards the destination desired by the FED.
Nothing clearly says that the rate hikes should or would be paused in the nearest future, or “higher for longer”.